January 23rd - New Orleans Pelicans VS Detroit Pistons - 22-25

Missing AD last game didn't seem to have too much impact, as we steamrolled the ineffectual Grizzlies so hard that their next move was to put Gasol and Conley on the block for trades. So that's nice. Tonight we play the 20-26 Detroit Pistons, at home. They have gone 2-3 in their last five, and their two wins were both by only five points, so they aren't looking great at the moment. We also aren't looking great at the moment, so it actually matches up pretty well with us.

AD will be out again tonight, and it looks like Drummond is going to play (although don't quote me on that for certain) so we're a little outmatched. Hopefully Okafor can dig deep and do some rebounding tonight, cause that's usually not his strength. We're gonna need the entire team crashing the boards. Let's look at their team:

Offensive Rating: 25th
Defensive Rating: 11th
Boards per game: 20th
Assists per game: 27th
Steals per game: 24th
Blocks per game: 29th
2pt percentage: 25th
3pt percentage: 30th

That's right, Detroit is the single worst team from three this season. That should mean that even with our bad perimeter defense, we should be able to do a solid job of covering them. Please. They aren't very good anywhere, to be honest, although they have a reasonably good defensive rating. They don't get a lot of steals or blocks, and while they are 7th in the league in Offensive Rebounds, their defensive rebounding is poor enough that their overall rebounding is dragged down a lot. We should be able to feast on the offensive glass tonight, if the guys really go after it. Theirs is not a motion heavy offense with a lot of passing, so again, that should make it easier on our mediocre defense to handle it.

Their main guys are Drummond, Griffin, and Reggie Jackson. Between the three of them, they have pretty much one superstar. Blake is averaging 26/8/5, and having his best season in years. He's only shooting 36% from three, but that definitely is enough to make sure that you need to guard him, and he's had a few big games to win the Pistons more than they really should have done. Without his occasional explosions, Detroit is probably a 15 win team at this point.

Biggest threat to us on the glass is obviously Drummond, who is averaging 14.9 boards per game, including a ridiculous 5.2 offensive boards. If he can be even slightly hampered on that end of the floor, it will hamstring their already poor offense and really open things up. Honestly, being gifted games against two of the league's worst offenses (Memphis and Detroit) just as AD goes out is probably a lot more luck than we deserve.

Jackson is having a bad season. He's averaging about 15ppg, but on 39% from the floor and 33% from three. He's having a really bad time, and he's not exactly distributing the ball at a high rate to make up for it either. Jrue shouldn't have too much of a defensive assignment this game with Jackson, so he should be able to focus his priority on scoring and making things happen on the other end. Hopefully we'll see a return of Payton's confidence against such a poor guard lineup, and he can contribute at a high level again like he was doing earlier in his games for us.

Let's go and #DoItBig

i can see drummond getting about 25 boards tonight and being the leading scorer for them and that may be a good thing.....i hope okafor can draw some fouls on drummond and get his confidence up and have another good game like his 20pt game against Memphis...the offense should flow good tonight also and everyone play their role and we win by 10+....

go pels...

confirmed lineups:

New Orleans Pelicans

PG: Payton
SG: Holiday
SF: Moore
PF: Randle
C: Okafor

Detroit Pistons

PG: Jackson
SG: Brown
SF: Bullock
PF: Griffin
C: Pachulia

So, that's done. Pachulia can't guard Okafor. Go to him all night.

Early, our starting five looks cleanly better than theres, no question. Everything can change, but just play with your head on straight and this shouldn't be hard.

Some great d from Okafor early

Okafor has 3 blocks in 4 minutes.

Does Okafor and Randle have 5 blocks already?

Randle has taken two step back jumpers so far, one from 3. He needs to STOP doing that.

can Randle jist play decent d so we can get rid of him easier ********

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by smcgull

Does Okafor and Randle have 5 blocks already?

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Okafor has 3, Randle has 0.

Oka4 blocks

Okafor is just cooking Zaza

in news from other games, Oladipo went down with a knee injury.

smdh..dont know why gentry was not playing okafor early in this season..

lol, Griffen has more fts then our entire team and we're at home [emoji23]

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Tim Frazier with the silliest turnover of the game in only about 20 seconds of play *kisses fingers like Italian chef*

can we please get a backup PG in the weeks coming..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Tim Frazier with the silliest turnover of the game in only about 20 seconds of play *kisses fingers like Italian chef*

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[emoji23][emoji23]

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by 6warddude

can we please get a backup PG in the weeks coming..

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hell no gentry thinks Frazier is the second coming of LeBron obviously

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I'd rather Clarke in there atleast he can shoot a little lol

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Pistons have 10 more FTAs than us already haha

It's rare to see someone give up on playing defense as blatantly as Randle just did.

blake has 20pts all ready...i guess he will score 80 tonight if we dont get the ball out of his hands when he gets it...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bahmamamba

hell no gentry thinks Frazier is the second coming of LeBron obviously

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lol...

im glad im not home to be at the game because Frazier would be giving me a headache yelling at him...

Tim Frazier might be my least favourite Pelican, tbh.

everytime Tim comes in we always get down in point lol

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detroit goes small so why is okafor not in the game to take advantage of detroit lack of size?

can we not give it to oak in the paint good god

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hold up we've been to the ft line 1 time? lmao of course

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1 ft in 24 mins are you kidding? you're telling me that the jump shooting team has more fts then the team that's going inside? lol ahhh the nba you're not a joke at all lol

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nope no fouls out there anywhere refs nope jrue didn't get fouled on that last play and oak didn't get fouled on the play before that love it

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the most annoying thing about Griffen he's never created a foul and he's always fouled

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Thank God it's..........Solo?!

the new nba shoot random 3s and hope they go in

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did gentry really put in a dude who won't shoot the 3 and won't pass unless it's a bucket? lmao yep he's losing on purpose

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Oooooph. Niko out, too, now. Probably looking at at least a six game skid. Would be lucky to steal one or two.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah. It's time. Trade AD, clean house, start the rebuild.

Terrible game, terrible effort, terrible results. #Pelslife

Morons. Utter morons

that was really soft not getting that loose ball. just effort based stuff.

What was Frank thinking on that last possession? The IQ level of this team is so horrible.

Man, Okafor is proving his worth every game. Makes you wonder where he fits in the teams plans moving forward.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

Man, Okafor is proving his worth every game. Makes you wonder where he fits in the teams plans moving forward.

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Right next to Davis in the starting lineup or right next to Tatum.

I'm right off Randle now. Trade him back to the Lakers

This team is not good enough to make noise if they get to playoffs. It’s the same ole same ole. I want to draft a player that can be dominant, be a leader and run the point. I am tired of pretending this team can compete with elite teams. Even with AD we aren’t that great. Who’s the leader? I think we lack a natural leader. CP3 and Rondo were natural leaders. AD is not. He’s a beast but he’s not the leader of this team. We don’t have one.


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