December 4th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Sacramento Kings - 11-10

turn off the beam… ����

AND LIGHT THE DAMN ANTHEM WE GOING TO VEGAS PELS NATION!!! ��@NBA pic.twitter.com/qKt3CR2Iw2

— retroPels (@retro_pels) December 5, 2023

Game Recap: pic.twitter.com/MVHieee2nY

— Larry Nance (@Larrydn22) December 5, 2023

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

It?s much harder to motivate yourself to play a crappy team on a back to back. Not making excuses for anyone but that is true for most athletes. We have to get over that hump and show up every night. It won?t always go your way but damnit we need to stay consistent

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It's about making it look easy. The pels struggle with that right now. Their flow is too easy to mess up.

That said having shooters like Trey and CJ available makes a big difference there.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Meh Chuck is right about Zion?s rebounding being subpar. I know Chuck?s old power forward position doesn?t exist anymore, and forwards aren?t going to have the same rebound numbers, but Zion has got to get more aggressive going after defensive rebounds

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He had 6 boards. Whatever. What do you need?

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Originally Posted by Pelifan

It's about making it look easy. The pels struggle with that right now. Their flow is too easy to mess up.

That said having shooters like Trey and CJ available makes a big difference there.

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We definitely don’t make it easy on ourselves. Part of that is obviously coaching, but also we were missing a leader for a decent chunk of time in CJ. Seeing as we have nobody else to fill that role, it can get a bit chaotic if the coach can’t set them up to succeed. Hopefully with everyone back we turn over a new leaf. We need to starting now

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

I always question Willie’s rotations as Zion should almost always be surrounded by shooting. But I would like Zion to start punishing teams for taking him lightly. He is capable of more than driving.

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I'm sorry, he's one dimensional. Just like Barkley said on TNT, he's living purely off of his talent.

Playing off your talent is fine, when you are playing against a Sociology Majors at Wake Forest, a Human Resources Majors at North Carolina, or Fine Arts Majors at Florida State. But now he's playing against the best of best. The level of competition he faces in the NBA night in and night out has risen significantly; unfortunately his game has not evolved to account for it.

Imagine if it did. There's a part of me that really feels sorry for him.

Wow, GREAT win !!!

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Originally Posted by As I See It

I'm sorry, he's one dimensional. Just like Barkley said on TNT, he's living purely off of his talent.

Playing off your talent is fine, when you are playing against a Sociology Majors at Wake Forest, a Human Resources Majors at North Carolina, or Fine Arts Majors at Florida State. But now he's playing against the best of best. The level of competition he faces in the NBA night in and night out has risen significantly; unfortunately his game has not evolved to account for it.

Imagine if it did. There's a part of me that really feels sorry for him.

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He deferred tonight. He didn't try to play hero ball. For that I'm thankful. At times in the game CJ tried that. Drove me crazy, thought he had a decent game otherwise. Zion will play amazing again next game probably. Or soon. To dismiss his games when he's like 12/15 is silly. Even if he is an average at best defender.

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Originally Posted by donato

He deferred tonight. He didn't try to play hero ball. For that I'm thankful. At times in the game CJ tried that. Drove me crazy, thought he had a decent game otherwise. Zion will play amazing again next game probably. Or soon. To dismiss his games when he's like 12/15 is silly. Even if he is an average at best defender.

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Exactly. He and BI are supposed to be learning how to play together and he deferred a lot tonight. We won as a team, yet some will complain no matter what. It was a great team win. BI and Herb were phenomenal.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

I'm sorry, he's one dimensional. Just like Barkley said on TNT, he's living purely off of his talent.

Playing off your talent is fine, when you are playing against a Sociology Majors at Wake Forest, a Human Resources Majors at North Carolina, or Fine Arts Majors at Florida State. But now he's playing against the best of best. The level of competition he faces in the NBA night in and night out has risen significantly; unfortunately his game has not evolved to account for it.

Imagine if it did. There's a part of me that really feels sorry for him.

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Shawn Kemp made a Finals run off talent alone. Had a decent PG and some shooters though so....

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Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN

Missed the game.
Any reason why Hawkins didn't play?

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Too small to defend Kings mostly.

The biggest thing Zion is missing is a point guard to help set him up. He’s probably one of the best lob threats in the league, but we don’t have a team that’s very good at throwing lob passes. It’s probably the one hole that we haven’t filled when Ball left. Brandon may be the best passer we have, but he’s not a natural point guard.

As for the game last night, I think some of it is the fact that his legs are probably shot from playing three games in four nights. A guy that heavy with that vertical is putting a lot of wear on his leg muscles. We should see a much better Zion with a full two days rest for Thursday’s game.

If one was to consider last night's game a playoff game, BI's career playoff stat-line reads as follows: 27.4 / 6.4 / 6.1.

DEFENSE...DEFENSE...DEFENSE!!!

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Originally Posted by ColoradoCajun

Too small to defend Kings mostly.

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Thank you.
However I don't buy it.
Maybe not good enough to play defence, but too small can't be it when you have Jose out there.

I hope Willie isn't starting to resort to not playing him because if his defence.

What exactly is the national vibe.....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba...16816c11&ei=27

DEFENSE...DEFENSE...DEFENSE!!!

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Originally Posted by As I See It

What exactly is the national vibe.....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba...16816c11&ei=27

DEFENSE...DEFENSE...DEFENSE!!!

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Zion constantly jogging with his tongue out feels like some sort of joke, doesn’t it? I always feel like he will eventually pick up the speed, but nope. Just a casual jog for 30 minutes a game. A lot of people don’t realize what Chuck is saying. Chuck is saying this team could only have about three losses if he hustled more. If they all hustled more, but seeing the star be lazy, creates a trickle effect. They also mentioned the team has lost 6 games this year when they led by double digits. That’s insane!

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Originally Posted by donato

He had 6 boards. Whatever. What do you need?

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I think he could have had about 12 if he actually boxed out to be honest. If he’s not barreling to the rim, he’s coasting.

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

Exactly. He and BI are supposed to be learning how to play together and he deferred a lot tonight. We won as a team, yet some will complain no matter what. It was a great team win. BI and Herb were phenomenal.

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It's ridiculous.

Zion himself said it in his post-game interview: sometimes, you have to be willing to let the guys who are hot take the shots instead of forcing it. Instead, he had 6 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and good defense in under 30 minutes played and still shot over 50% from the floor. And we won, by double digits. Would guys on this site prefer he took a bunch of stupid ''my turn'' shots just to make the box score look prettier? He played the role the team needed given the way everyone else was playing and how Sacramento was defending him. What's the issue?

Great team win indeed.

Honestly quite happy with where the team is at for this season. I still think there are long term things that are going to need addressing but the immediate term is cool.

Everyone getting healthy. BI and Zion fitting together well lately. Herb taking the level up offensively. Trey appears to still have it. JV and CJ doing quality vet things still.

12-10 isn't ideal, of course, but when you consider the circumstances it's a lot better than this team would have been say, a year or 2 ago.

We've played one of the hardest schedules in the league thus far, with a top 3 most-games-lost-due-to-injury, and we've also played the most games in the league. We've played 22 games already, which is the most; some teams have only played 17 games at this point (see: Houston). To come through that over .500 finally going into an easier stretch, I'm happy with the team right now.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Honestly quite happy with where the team is at for this season. I still think there are long term things that are going to need addressing but the immediate term is cool.

Everyone getting healthy. BI and Zion fitting together well lately. Herb taking the level up offensively. Trey appears to still have it. JV and CJ doing quality vet things still.

12-10 isn't ideal, of course, but when you consider the circumstances it's a lot better than this team would have been say, a year or 2 ago.

We've played one of the hardest schedules in the league thus far, with a top 3 most-games-lost-due-to-injury, and we've also played the most games in the league. We've played 22 games already, which is the most; some teams have only played 17 games at this point (see: Houston). To come through that over .500 finally going into an easier stretch, I'm happy with the team right now.

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Yeah, but don’t you think they always have some “circumstance” that allows them to be mediocre. The team is Jekyl and Hide sometimes. But, for years we have allowed them to tell us that a certain thing is the reason they lose like they have done to teams that are far inferior in talent. We as a fan base just need to hold them accountable, so they would be more consistent. They get away with a lot of excuses. Like saying Zion is lazy or BI takes bad shots, or Willie can’t coach is all things that happen, so it’s not bad to call it out. Should also give praise when it’s necessary. Just feel they need tough love. This roster can win a title.

Herb jones is going to win a NBA title one day. i just hope its with us! what a player.

the kings were 9-4 in their last 13 games.....i know for sure 7 of the 9 wins were against good teams....3 of their 4 losses was to us.....meeting them in the playoffs will be hard and hyped up games on their end trying to prove something....

looks like we will be playing the lakers.

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Originally Posted by AussieHornet

looks like we will be playing the lakers.

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not so fast...

Even though i think Suns are clearly better team i would rather play them then the Lakers. Lakers will kill us on the boards and also there is refs factor against them.

also the lakers lost their lead!

Durant maybe injured, Booker with 5 fouls, Lakers up 5, looks like we are playing Lakers after all.

shocker, Lakers get a massive break. Lebron called a timeout like 2 full seconds after the ball was loose. Totally absurd.

gotta beat the refs too when you play the lakers

If the Lakers win the whole thing does Uncle Tom Washington get a winners' share, too?

It will be hard against Lakers and zebras in Vegas. NBA wants some Lebron in the finals.

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Originally Posted by Mrakar

It will be hard against Lakers and zebras in Vegas. NBA wants some Lebron in the finals.

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That was my concern about playing the Lakers. Was hoping the Suns could pull it out. I think we match up better with the Suns also.

Zion definitely needs to help Jonas out on the boards for this game. Looking back on Monday’s game, Zion was extremely flat footed around the basket. There was one play in particular when the Kings got several offensive boards and finally Sabonis dunked it, and Zion stood flat footed for the entire sequence. Jonas was visibly angry after that play and I don’t think it had to do with the refs.

It's going to be tricky but luckily, both Zion and BI have a track record of playing well against the Lakers.

Zion's numbers vs LA:
27.8ppg
7.8rpg
3.8apg
62.3%TS
11.2 FTA/g

BI's numbers vs LA:
25.5ppg
5.4rpg
4.4apg
61.7%TS
5.6FTA/game

So at least one of them should be able to have a good night.

The thing about the Lakers is that outside of ref help, they generally aren't that good. They have a bottom 5 offense, because they are an awful team from 3 and are 26th in both drives and paint touches per game; they don't get to the hoop and they can't shoot. Well, Pels defense is largely predicated on preventing attempts at the rim (which we are fairly successful at) and allowing 3s - a bit like Milwaukee's defense was a few years ago.

So as long as we can shoot (which, with CJ and Trey healthy will be hopefully possible) and they don't have an outlier night from 3, we should be able to pull it off. But that's a lot of ifs. They might have an outlier shooting night. Maybe CJ is cold and can't hit the side of a barn.

On paper, we should be the favourites imo. But reality has a way of ruining things for Pelicans.

The NBA and the refs will not allow us to get to the finals over the Fakers. Only way is if we get a 30 pt lead and they can't do anything about it

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

It's going to be tricky but luckily, both Zion and BI have a track record of playing well against the Lakers.

Zion's numbers vs LA:
27.8ppg
7.8rpg
3.8apg
62.3%TS
11.2 FTA/g

BI's numbers vs LA:
25.5ppg
5.4rpg
4.4apg
61.7%TS
5.6FTA/game

So at least one of them should be able to have a good night.

The thing about the Lakers is that outside of ref help, they generally aren't that good. They have a bottom 5 offense, because they are an awful team from 3 and are 26th in both drives and paint touches per game; they don't get to the hoop and they can't shoot. Well, Pels defense is largely predicated on preventing attempts at the rim (which we are fairly successful at) and allowing 3s - a bit like Milwaukee's defense was a few years ago.

So as long as we can shoot (which, with CJ and Trey healthy will be hopefully possible) and they don't have an outlier night from 3, we should be able to pull it off. But that's a lot of ifs. They might have an outlier shooting night. Maybe CJ is cold and can't hit the side of a barn.

On paper, we should be the favourites imo. But reality has a way of ruining things for Pelicans.

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Now do AD and LBJ numbers against the Pels.

I just don't see who guards AD.
Herb will be on LBJ, but I can't see how anyone on the team will be able to contain AD.
Hopefully AD settles for midrange.

i had no idea cody zeller was such a stud in college https://vault.si.com/vault/2012/11/12/the-big-chill

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Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN

Now do AD and LBJ numbers against the Pels.

I just don't see who guards AD.
Herb will be on LBJ, but I can't see how anyone on the team will be able to contain AD.
Hopefully AD settles for midrange.

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That's not the point - my argument isn't that their stars suck, it's just that our stars show up in this matchup. The fact that theirs do too - and they do, Lebron averages 28/7/7 against us and AD averages 28/11/3 - is kind of besides the point.

There's a lot the refs can do, but you can lose a game even where you get more FTS - we should know, we took more FTs than the Jazz in the first loss against them this season and look what happened there.

Continuing to play team oriented basketball against their defense (they have a good defense) rather than getting the matchups into our heads and turning it into 1v1s will be vital, because at the end of the day the refs will be against us and that means if we want to win, we actually have to outplay them. Can't have a game where you take 20 3PAs all night or randomly refuse to pass to JV under the rim or whatever random nonsense we have going on sometimes. Gotta exploit matchups, deny them the paint and force them into jumpers, and take threes.

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Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN

Now do AD and LBJ numbers against the Pels.

I just don't see who guards AD.
Herb will be on LBJ, but I can't see how anyone on the team will be able to contain AD.
Hopefully AD settles for midrange.

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You could put Dyson on LBJ and Herb on AD.

AD don't want to bang with JV

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Originally Posted by ml wave

AD don't want to bang with JV

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That's true. On the other hand AD is too quick for Jonas.

We can win this game the same way a lot of other teams have beaten us, beat them on the three point line. We finally have the shooters to out shoot a team. Lakers are 29th in three point percentage,.

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Originally Posted by donato

You could put Dyson on LBJ and Herb on AD.

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I dont' know how many minutes Dyson and Herb are going to play together in this game. Personally I would prefer to keep more shooters out there because as I said in the post above, that should be a big advantage for us. Whenever Herb is on the floor I think he's going to guard Lebron. If I were Willie, I'd save Dyson for when they bring Austin Reaves off the bench.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

I dont' know how many minutes Dyson and Herb are going to play together in this game. Personally I would prefer to keep more shooters out there because as I said in the post above, that should be a big advantage for us. Whenever Herb is on the floor I think he's going to guard Lebron. If I were Willie, I'd save Dyson for when they bring Austin Reaves off the bench.

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I don't disagree. It was just a thought. It'll be interesting to see what we try to do.