28th February - New Orleans Pelicans VS Cleveland Cavaliers - 25-33

Down to 12 point lead. Gotta come in at the start of the 4th, the main guys, Zion back on the floor, and just put the foot down for a few minutes. Blow the lead back up to 20.

11-0 run for the Cavs... :idoh: End this game Pels!

Lonzo's shot to end the 3rd.

Dribble, dribble, dribble. Jump step backwards for a huge brick.

I'm gonna say, NOT GOOD.

Zion with another steal but can't really turn it into anything. He tipped it out to Moore but Moore didn't expect that and it just left.

Zion seals on Sexton, Jrue rockets it inside to him. Score. Should have been FTs again, but nope.

And now 2 turnovers in a row from Ingam smh lol

Ingram gets stripped on consecutive plays. Luckily, neither turns into points

Ingram's handle is not good. He's dribbling it TOO HIGH again.

Bets defensive possession I've seen from Ingram in a minute.

Sexton doing his best to show people how impactless scoring can be :hihi:

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Originally Posted by Biasvasospasm

Bets defensive possession I've seen from Ingram in a minute.

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That's how he played on-ball D in LA.. Would be nice if he did more of that with the Pels..

These refs are TERRIBLE...

Nico put back!

Zion can just shove love out of the way lmao

1 more point for Zion before he secures the longest 25 point streak for any teenager in NBA history. He already has the longest 20 point streak for any teenager in NBA history.

My patented geriatric finger roll.

Melli owes me money.

Looking at this Cavs team, we are sooooo lucky, our rebuild is already past theirs and they been tanking for a couple years.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

1 more point for Zion before he secures the longest 25 point streak for any teenager in NBA history. He already has the longest 20 point streak for any teenager in NBA history.

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I wonder if they are even aware?

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Originally Posted by ragincaucasian

I wonder if they are even aware?

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I guess not, cause Zion just sat and I don't think it's likely he comes back in when we're up this much.

Endgame Stats: 116-104

Zion: 24 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block. 11/16 shooting (68.8%)
Ingram: 29 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal. 11/19 shooting (57.9%), 2/5 from 3 (40%)
Jrue: 22 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 block. 10/16 shooting (62.5%), 2/6 from 3 (33.3%)
Favors: 5 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks. 2/2 shooting
Lonzo: 5 points, 6 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals. 1/6 shooting (16.7%), 1/3 from 3 (33.3%)

Bench
Redick: 1 rebound, 2 assists.
Hart:5 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists. 2/5 shooting
Melli:10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists. 4/6 shooting
Hayes: 4 points, 2/3 shooting, 9 minutes
Moore: 10 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist. 4/6 shooting
Jackson: 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1/5 shooting (20%)

Nobody played more than 34 minutes.

Good win Pels! Now let's crush the Fakers... :cool:

The Bucks are leading the Thunder by 50.

Yes 50.

With 3 minutes left in the game.

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Originally Posted by ragincaucasian

The Bucks are leading the Thunder by 50.

Yes 50.

With 3 minutes left in the game.

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Thunder are 5thcin the west and they are making them look like a lottery team

Glad that game is over. I haven't been as aggravated with officiating at a Pels game I can remember this year. Glad that team was not good enough to take advantage of the way it was being called.

Kings were up 10 with a minute left and now they up 1 with 10 sec left

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Originally Posted by kidjock24

Kings were up 10 with a minute left and now they up 1 with 10 sec left

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They won

We'll have the 8th seed by this time next week probably

Kings manage to hang on to the win. We are now only 2 games behind the Grizzlies for the 8th seed.

BI is the truth. Max that man.

Apparently Zion says that he told Lonzo pre-game that he was going to run, and that if Lonzo was ''ready to throw'' then he would catch it.

That did happen.

With a total of 327 points, Zion has now 20th in total points scored by a rookie. He has played 14 games.

Here is every rookie ahead of him in total points, and how many games they've played:

- Michael Porter Jr, 330 points; 42 games
- Cam Johnson, 371 points; 47 games
- Jaxson Hayes, 420 points; 55 games
- Jordan Poole, 443 points; 52 games
- Kevin Porter Jr, 467 points; 47 games
- Terence Davis, 476 points; 59 games
- Rui Hachimura, 487 points; 35 games
- Jarrett Culver, 515 points; 57 games
- Cam Reddish, 533 points; 53 games
- Brandon Clarke, 602 points; 50 games
- Tyler Herro, 603 points; 46 games
- PJ Washington, 618 points; 52 games
- RJ Barrett, 672 points; 49 games
- DeAndre Hunter, 706 points; 57 games
- Darius Garland, 718 points; 58 games
- Eric Paschall, 722 points; 54 games
- Coby White, 725 points; 58 games
- Kendrick Nunn, 881 points; 56 games
- Ja Morant, 930 points; 53 games

The fact that Zion has played 14 games and nobody who has more points than him has played fewer than 35 (more the double!) is insane.

At his current rate of scoring, it would take Zion 39 games to hit 931 points; that's 14 fewer games than it's taken Morant to get to 930, the current lead.

Zion is averaging 23.4 points per game. Ja, the second highest scoring rookie, is averaging 17.5. Pretty much +6ppg over the dude in 2nd place.

He's currently averaging 37 points per 100 possessions. The number of rookies in NBA history to ever average 37 points per 100 possessions (minimum 400 minutes played, which is Zion's minutes total so far):

- Zion Williamson
- That's the list.

The previous record for rookie points per 100 was rookie Michael Jordan, who scored at 35.5 per 100 as a rookie. Obviously, way more games played, but still. Zion's rate is literally unprecedented. In fact, only Blake (30.7 per 100) and KAT (28.8 per 100) come within 10 points over the last 20 years.

Full list of rookies to average at least 30 points per 100 possessions since per100 stats began (1973-74): Michael Jordan, Walter Davis, David Robinson, Arvydas Sabonis, Shaquille O'Neal, Blake Griffin, Terry Cummings. That's it. The youngest player in the list was Shaq, who was 20. Zion's 19 still. Now, in fairness, because it wasn't tracked before 1973-74, there are no per 100 numbers for guys who were rookies before that.

But enough about rookies. Here's the list of every player since 1973-74 to score at least 37 points per 100:

- Michael Jordan (x10)
- Lebron James (x5)
- Steph Curry
- James Harden (x2)
- Tracy McGrady
- Kevin Durant (x3)
- Karl Malone (x3)
- David Robinson (x2)
- Shaquille O'Neal (x2)
- Dirk Nowitzki

That's it. That's every time anyone has ever averaged at least 37 points per 100 since per 100 stats began being tracked. Every single name on that list is either a Hall of Famer or a future Hall of Famer. 10 names, 9 of which won MVP awards at some point in their career.

Zion's good at basketball.

WAIT...SO HE'S NOT THE NEXT ANTHONY BENNETT? Goodness so many people were wrong.

He's already outscored Bennett in his rookie season lol.

I still think we can use him to pry Kuzma away from LA.



But really. That's insane. And he's so smooth about it.

Since he entered the league 14 games ago, Zion Williamson leads the NBA in shots inside the restricted area, with 182. He's second in makes behind John Collins; Zion has 115 makes, Collins has 121.

Zion's shooting 63.7% inside the restricted area.

Edit: this was edited because apparently I can't read NBAStats right and I had to redo it lol

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Originally Posted by luckyman

BI is the truth. Max that man.

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I was listening to the Dunc’ed on podcast the other day, and they have their list of top small forwards, so little respect for BI.

Nate Duncan has him listed as the 9th best SF, the other guy has BI listed as his 13th best SF. That’s when I turned off the podcast, because Satan is a liar, and those guys are liars.

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Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

I was listening to the Dunc’ed on podcast the other day, and they have their list of top small forwards, so little respect for BI.

Nate Duncan has him listed as the 9th best SF, the other guy has BI listed as his 13th best SF. That’s when I turned off the podcast, because Satan is a liar, and those guys are liars.

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I mean that's really good and Ingram is a shoe in for most improved player being that this is his 1st good year in his career. Yet, it's mainly on the offensive side of his game. He still isn't a complete player yet. So, i can understand the skepticism. BI going from probably 25-30 to 9th and 13th is a lot of respect shown. Don't necessarily have to crown him yet.

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Originally Posted by Taker597

I mean that's really good and Ingram is a shoe in for most improved player being that this is his 1st good year in his career. Yet, it's mainly on the offensive side of his game. He still isn't a complete player yet. So, i can understand the skepticism. BI going from probably 25-30 to 9th and 13th is a lot of respect shown. Don't necessarily have to crown him yet.

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Yeah, this. Ingram wasn't even a top 100 player last season. He's clearly top 50 now. That's a huge leap. The fact that he's not top 10 doesn't diminish the size of his improvement or how impressive it has been.

I'd be curious to know who they listed ahead of him though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

I was listening to the Dunc’ed on podcast the other day, and they have their list of top small forwards, so little respect for BI.

Nate Duncan has him listed as the 9th best SF, the other guy has BI listed as his 13th best SF. That’s when I turned off the podcast, because Satan is a liar, and those guys are liars.

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Hahaha

Obviously he's played fewer games that almost everyone else on this list. So consider all those minutes played caveats.

But Zion's 23.4 points per game makes him the 16th highest scorer in the league :hihi:

He's averaging more points per game than Joel Embiid, DeMar DeRozan, CJ McCollum, Kemba Walker, Nikola Jokic, Jimmy Butler, Kristaps Porzingis, etc.

He's the only rookie in the top 50 in points per game (Morant is 52nd).

Less impressive here, but his 6.8 rebounds per game also puts him at 38th in the NBA, tied with Butler and PJ Tucker, which is pretty good. Again, he's the only rookie that's top 50 in rebounds per game; Brandon Clarke's 5.8 per game is 64th in the league, and he's grabbing the 2nd most boards per game.

Perhaps more impressive though, when it comes to rebounding, is that Zion's averaging 3.2 offensive rebounds per game; that's 6th in the league, just after Drummond, Tristan Thompson, Whiteside, Gobert, and Steven Adams. Zion is 6'6 :hihi:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Yeah, this. Ingram wasn't even a top 100 player last season. He's clearly top 50 now. That's a huge leap. The fact that he's not top 10 doesn't diminish the size of his improvement or how impressive it has been.

I'd be curious to know who they listed ahead of him though.

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https://youtu.be/__3EJj3SX3g

2021-2022? Huh...

Top SFs

1)Lebron
2)Luka
3) Tatum
4) Leonard
5) Durant
6) Butler
7) Middleton
8) Brown
9) BI

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

Top SFs

1)Lebron
2)Luka
3) Tatum
4) Leonard
5) Durant
6) Butler
7) Middleton
8) Brown
9) BI

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Oh okay. Well, to be honest, I mostly agree with this list.

I don't know if I'd count Brown as a SF, but even if I did, I think Ingram's better than him. And I'm not sure if I'd be willing to rank Durant due to the size of the injury he had and missing a whole year (obviously healthy he's better than Ingram but who knows at this point?). But otherwise, I mostly agree.

Lebron, Luka, Tatum, Kawhi, Butler, and Middleton are all clearly better players than Ingram, as of today imo. That's a fair evaluation. Obviously in 2 years, who knows, but today and this season, I think that's fair.

Yeah, I think Nate's ranking is totally fair. I think Danny's was nonsense. Like he had Bojan Bogdanavich ahead of BI, which is think is silly. They are similarly weak defenders, but BI is a better scorer and better at everything else.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Oh okay. Well, to be honest, I mostly agree with this list.

I don't know if I'd count Brown as a SF, but even if I did, I think Ingram's better than him. And I'm not sure if I'd be willing to rank Durant due to the size of the injury he had and missing a whole year (obviously healthy he's better than Ingram but who knows at this point?). But otherwise, I mostly agree.

Lebron, Luka, Tatum, Kawhi, Butler, and Middleton are all clearly better players than Ingram, as of today imo. That's a fair evaluation. Obviously in 2 years, who knows, but today and this season, I think that's fair.

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Non-Pels but what do you think about Tatum over Leonard? I mean. Brown over BI is just wrong but I don't think it's the biggest crime on that list. That screams "shock value clickbait" to me.

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

Non-Pels but what do you think about Tatum over Leonard? I mean. Brown over BI is just wrong but I don't think it's the biggest crime on that list. That screams "shock value clickbait" to me.

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Honestly not too surprised by it. It's the sort of take that I think is wrong but isn't wrong enough to make you look stupid. It's not indefensible.

Personally, I'd have Kawhi over Tatum, but I don't think it's an inexcusable view to take. Kawhi's averaging more points, but Tatum's been the better 3pt shooter this year (39.8% vs Kawhi's 36.5%) and the difference in the pull-up accuracy is even more startling. Tatum's 3rd in the NBA in pull-up 3pt accuracy, having shot about 40.7% on over 230 attempts (more than double the volume of the two more accurate pull-up shooters, Marcus Smart and JJ Redick), whereas Kawhi has been a legitimately bad shooter off the dribble this year, only 31.8%. For comparison, even Jrue's shooting about 35% on pull-up 3s, and half this board hates Jrue taking those shots :hihi:

As for the other stats, they're honestly fairly similar. 57% TS for Tatum, 58% for Kawhi. Kawhi has the higher STL%, but Tatum has the higher BLK%. They're both top 10 in PIPM (Kawhi is 3rd, Tatum's 9th). Both been really good defenders. Kawhi's BPM and VORP are both much higher, but Tatum's are still very good.

I'd take Kawhi over Tatum because I think he's the more valuable guy for a playoff run, due to his experience, his ability to create his own shot from anywhere inside the arc, and the fact that he's been the better playmaker right now; more than double the AST%. But if someone said that Tatum's youth (still 21!) along with his superior shooting value made them consider him 'better' going forward, especially with Kawhi's injury issue that costs him like 20 games every year, I don't think I could fault them for it.

I love our duo of rookie Centers

Might be on paper the perfect two bigs to pair with Zion if they reach their offensive/defensive potential