November 10th - New Orleans Pelicans vs Portland Trailblazers - 6-5

Back at home 🏠

🕖: 7:00pm CT
📺: Bally Sports NO
📻: @995WRNO#Pelicans | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/wwmD2zDtf1

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 10, 2022

I'll be in the building tonight!

Dame played 36 minutes last night. I wonder if he take a vet rest day. Excited to watch Josh Hart steal rebounds from his teammates. Very curious to see Shaedon Sharpe in person too.

Pels and defending explosive guards mix as well as oil and water

Sharpe will go for 30

I’m going to go out on a limb and say we blow this team out tonight as long as we dont get a CJ attempted revenge game. Those last 8 minutes last night were incredibly encouraging, and I think we ride that momentum. Zion should absolutely body Grant, and BI can shoot over Harts undersized a** all night

You do realise that the last 8 minutes are when teams actually begin to try, especially complacent ones

A blow-out is so far fetched that you could sell the idea to George Lucas for a tidy sum and drag him out of retirement

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Originally Posted by AusPel

You do realise that the last 8 minutes are when teams actually begin to try, especially complacent ones

A blow-out is so far fetched that you could sell the idea to George Lucas for a tidy sum and drag him out of retirement

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Pels opened as 7 point favorites, and it now sits at 6.5 and is trending back towards 7, so apparently George Lucas is making the lines

Game just pulled from betting sites. May not see Dame tonight

Blazers say Damian Lillard is out tonight with "right calf injury management." Nurkic and Grant are questionable.

— Sean Highkin (@highkin) November 10, 2022

And there it is

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Originally Posted by pelafanatic

Blazers say Damian Lillard is out tonight with "right calf injury management." Nurkic and Grant are questionable.

— Sean Highkin (@highkin) November 10, 2022

And there it is

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Makes it basically a must-win.

Tonight is either going to be a CJ resurgence night or it's going to be one of the most frustrating nights of the year as so-far-not-good-this-season-CJ goes hero-ball trying to stick it to the Blazers.

Tonight's going to be a fun game because its the 12th game of the year. A dozen games in. That's obviously not a huge portion of the season but it's also not insignificant, and there are now obvious trends emerging among the team. Can Coach Green actually make some adjustments to our overall gameplan and rotations, or is it going to be more of the same?

I'm happy and sad no Dame. Happy we have a better chance to win. Sad I don't get to see him ball out and then we still win.

If Nurcic -AND- Grant are both out, good luck defending Zion!

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Tonight's going to be a fun game because its the 12th game of the year. A dozen games in. That's obviously not a huge portion of the season but it's also not insignificant, and there are now obvious trends emerging among the team. Can Coach Green actually make some adjustments to our overall gameplan and rotations, or is it going to be more of the same?

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I feel like a broken record with this excuse, but I would expect the rotations to change with the homestand, and the practice that comes with it. Hard to make changes to a gameplan in the middle of a three week road trip. Equally hard to incorporate a rookie. If Dyson doesnt get any run over the next 6, and if DG continues to semi-close games, I'll start having major questions

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Originally Posted by pelafanatic

I feel like a broken record with this excuse, but I would expect the rotations to change with the homestand, and the practice that comes with it. Hard to make changes to a gameplan in the middle of a three week road trip. Equally hard to incorporate a rookie. If Dyson doesnt get any run over the next 6, and if DG continues to semi-close games, I'll start having major questions

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I'm not asking for miracles. Coaches in the NBA are generally slow to make changes, even in optimal conditions, and several coaches spend decades in the league in some capacity or another without ever really fundamentally changing their approach. So even if I have a long list of changes I'd like to see Green try, I'm not delusional - I know they're not all going to happen.

But I want to see something. It's clear that this team is not performing at the level it should. I'm fine with 6-5, it's not a horrible record, but we've lost multiple games now where if we were just 5 or 10% better, they'd be wins. We could very easily be 8-3 at this point or similar, with a few small changes. I want to see some of those changes. Even one, consistently. If all that changes is that dyson gets 10-15 minutes a game regularly from now on, that'll be something.

But you can't just watch a team underperform for 10, 15, 20 games and just shrug your shoulders and say ''eh, whatever''.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

I'm not asking for miracles. Coaches in the NBA are generally slow to make changes, even in optimal conditions, and several coaches spend decades in the league in some capacity or another without ever really fundamentally changing their approach. So even if I have a long list of changes I'd like to see Green try, I'm not delusional - I know they're not all going to happen.

But I want to see something. It's clear that this team is not performing at the level it should. I'm fine with 6-5, it's not a horrible record, but we've lost multiple games now where if we were just 5 or 10% better, they'd be wins. We could very easily be 8-3 at this point or similar, with a few small changes. I want to see some of those changes. Even one, consistently. If all that changes is that dyson gets 10-15 minutes a game regularly from now on, that'll be something.

But you can't just watch a team underperform for 10, 15, 20 games and just shrug your shoulders and say ''eh, whatever''.

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Last night was a super frustrating watch. There were so many things that I just had no idea what the game plan was, or how they got to that point. The first 8 minutes have got to change

The Pelicans will go as far as their defense takes them.

Just dont want a repeat of that Indiana horror show.

I’d like to see Dyson get a decent amount of run tonight. Especially matched up against Sharpe.

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Originally Posted by pelafanatic

Last night was a super frustrating watch. There were so many things that I just had no idea what the game plan was, or how they got to that point. The first 8 minutes have got to change

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There's just so much low hanging fruit. Why does CJ lead the team in touches and never use his off-ball gravity to create for others? Why do we run Zion in the post as his most frequent play type when its also the easiest playtype to double, and he's proven so effective in the PnR? Why do we never play dyson? Why is Graham seen as an acceptable CJ substitute to play alongside Alvarado?

So many obvious areas to address, and I guess over the next homestand we'll find out if Willie is going to address any of them at all.

Lets stack up some wins boys!! Win streak coming

Larry Nance Jr. (left knee hyperextension) is AVAILABLE for tonight’s game v. Portland.

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 11, 2022

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Larry Nance Jr. (left knee hyperextension) is AVAILABLE for tonight’s game v. Portland.

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 11, 2022

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great news about Nance (whether he plays tonight or not).... he has easily become one of my top three favorites....

BI is on fire from 3 point land this whole season

Winslow been blowing past zion with ease

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Originally Posted by hornetsrebirth

BI is on fire from 3 point land this whole season

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The biggest overaction from last year.

That dreamshake fadeaway midrange good for BI once again

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Originally Posted by PaKwAn

Winslow been blowing past zion with ease

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a lot of people do. I wonder if its because he's so big that quick twitch change of direction is something he can't handle. Or if he isnt trying hard enough.

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Originally Posted by Taker597

The biggest overaction from last year.

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whoa whoa whoa. what the hell was that last 3 step back with a guy all over him. Horrible shot and he absolutely drained it!!!

good rebound from Zion, want to see a lot more of that from the big guy

they gotta help out and not leave alvarado posted up in the paint by himself against a big

Jose - CJ - Naji - Zion - Nance

loving this rotation

Things just seem to be clicking along at the moment, quite nicely

hate to say it but CJ might look better when he isn't playing with BI. More freedom to do his thing

all ball from Jonas there

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Originally Posted by hornetsrebirth

hate to say it but CJ might look better when he isn't playing with BI. More freedom to do his thing

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Worked for Westbrook. I was wondering a few days ago if CJ would be more effective coming off the bench.

i continue to not like the ball in CJ's hands for the last play of the half/game.

Trey has such a high arc on his shots.

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Originally Posted by hornetsrebirth

i continue to not like the ball in CJ's hands for the last play of the half/game.

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Lol reminds me of repeated Jrue isos at the end of the half that never worked

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Originally Posted by hornetsrebirth

i continue to not like the ball in CJ's hands for the last play of the half/game.

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CJ is leading the Pels in touches this year, and is also setting a career high in touches. Zion joined the team compared to last year, and CJ's touches went up, which is the opposite of what you'd expect when an all-star scorer rejoins the lineup.

He needs to spend less time on ball. For his sake and everyone else's.

You'd expect a vet like CJ to be able to adjust his game in the right direction for the good of the team

Probably mostly on Willie tho

30 foot pullup 9 secs into the shot clock isn't optimal, CJ

Can we just start this quarter again? do over

Does CJ have an undisclosed injury or something? He's playing like it's last year's post-season.

Zion 2 turnovers and a miss, Ingram 2 turnovers and a charge, JV 2 fouls

what a start to the second half

This is a miserable quarter. If the Blazers were 10% better we'd be on the way to getting blown out now

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

This is a miserable quarter. If the Blazers were 10% better we'd be on the way to getting blown out now

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Agreed. I keep wondering why the Pels aren't consistently up by double digits. I guess I'm just naive about this team.

the challenge rule should be that you can keep challenging calls until you lose one

See how quickly they call TO when we start to gain any momentum? Immediately trying to snuff out a potential run.

Outside of Trey, the bench has also been a big factor in the general miserability of this

This team can be really dumb at times...

Is there a stat for the team with the most turnovers? I want to see where are ranked. Genuinely curious

This is going to be a bad loss if we don't win this one... no dame no nurk and we are beating ourselves once again