With a surprisingly dominant win over the Indiana Pacers last night, the Pelicans finally have double digit wins. 10! A whole 10 wins. Who'd'a thunk it? Of course, part of that was due to the Pacers shooting horrifically badly even on wide open shots that our defense had nothing to do with, and they were missing both Brogdon and Oladipo, but still. A win is a win, especially over a team that had been pretty good recently.
Speaking of ''pretty good recently'', the Pelicans have now won 4 of their last 5 games, including against some good teams. The Pacers were 21-11, the Nuggets were 21-8. Those are good teams. Both solid playoff teams, and Denver will probably finish with a top 3 seed in the West. So good wins to get, especially with Zion still waiting in the wings to return. As for injuries on the other side, Capela missed last game due to an ankle complaint: he may not play tonight either, which would be a big help for us.
Back in the @SmoothieKingCtr for another #PelicansGameday!!
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 29, 2019
⏰: 7pm
📺: @FOXSportsNOLA
🎙: @ESPNRadioNOLA 100.3 FM
📱: Follow along on the Pelicans app pic.twitter.com/aZej4wpkuu
So tonight, on the second night of a back to back, we face the Houston Rockets, who are also on the second night of a back to back. I don't think that I need to really analyse the Rockets too much, we all kind of know how they play at this point, but some key salient numbers include these: they're 22-10, 2nd in the league in ORtg, 16th in DRtg. They're 1st in 3PAs and FTAs by a fair margin. Top 10 in rebounds, steals, and fouls: top 10 in all 4 of the Four Offensive Factors.
Recently the Rockets haven't been quite as dominant as they'd probably like (though they've still been winning, mostly) as they've barely eked out a win over San Antonio, took a 12 point loss to Golden State, and struggled hard for a win over the Clippers. They've only surpassed 115 points twice in their last 7 games, despite averaging 119 points per game on the season.
Part of this is just reality: sometimes you have a few low scoring games. It happens, it's no big deal. But another part of it is that teams are realising something very vital about the Houston offense (and this was exploited dramatically by the Warriors): a lot of the time, you can just ignore Westbrook.
Hopefully we manage to exploit the flaws in Houston's defense and defend smartly enough to at least make this a contest. This is the sort of game that would be a triumphant win, especially since we don't play again for a few days after this. #WBD