30th July - New Orleans Pelicans VS Utah Jazz - 0-0 (28-36) Bubble Game 1

Hello everybody and welcome to this, a long awaited new episode of The New Orleans Pelicans Are Playing Meaningful Basketball Tonight!

It's been a long and rough journey, hopefully all of us have made it through as unscathed as possible, and now the NBA has returned; tonight the Pelicans play their first real game inside the Bubble, and because of the fact that it is the first of 8 final seeding games, I have added a new 0-0 counter to the thread titles. This, along with the full season total in brackets, will be updated after each game as normal.

Finally: #PelicansGameday!

��vs Utah
⌚️: 5:30 pm CT
��: @FOXSportsNOLA / @NBAonTNT
��: @ESPNRadioNOLA
��: Pelicans App#WontBowDown | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/Fg5tObPQYe

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 30, 2020

Tonight we take on the Utah Jazz, which are in some ways the guys who started this whole thing; Gobert testing positive almost immediately after purposefully touching all the microphones and then potentially infecting Donovan Mitchell is what shut down the NBA in the first place.

I won't go into all the statistics really because we've played the Jazz in some memorable games this year and frankly it's been so long and we're in such different conditions that it's not really a 1 to 1 comparison from before the shutdown to now. That said, we did play the Jazz quite well in our encounters so far this season, and we didn't have Zion in either of those (Zion decimated Gobert in pre-season, though). Will Zion be enough to take us over the top and put us 1-0 in the bubble?

Speaking of Zion, he is still listed as a game time decision, however he was seen warming up with the team at shootaround so with any luck that game time decision is just a precaution and he will in fact be playing tonight. It would really suck if he wasn't, that's for sure.

So, let's hope Zion is back, let's hope for a win, and let's enter the bubble with a pop!

NBA play resumes tonight, but Zion Williamson is a game-time decision.

The Pelicans have a +10.4 net efficiency with Zion on the court this season and a -3.5 net efficiency with him off the court. The 13.9-point difference is the largest in the NBA (min. 500 minutes played) pic.twitter.com/UigJ47YzG2

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 30, 2020

Pelicanidae, can you also track where we are in relation to the play in? Do we know how tiebreakers and all that work for the 9th seed and right to play Memphis (assuming they stay 8th)?

If Gobert scares BI out of the paint tonight (or of he is yet again allowed to foul all game) then this will be a rough game for us. We definitely dont want to have to rely on spot up shooting and no ball movement.

I like our chances. I hate that there are only 8 games because that seems to leave no room for error at all. But BI and Lonzo look more confident right now than they looked all season and that is great for us. Plus, Zion is a guy who can roll out of bed at 20/10, so I'm not worried about him at all.

LETS GO

If Zion is a go...I see no one on Jazz team that can guard him straight up.

6'4', 225# Royce O'Neale? Come on man!!!

Got to hit the threes. Without BB, Utah is a very average team.

Tank back on


Kidding


Let’s go

Let’s GOOOOOO!!! So dang excited. Is it game time yet?

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Originally Posted by AD-AT

Pelicanidae, can you also track where we are in relation to the play in? Do we know how tiebreakers and all that work for the 9th seed and right to play Memphis (assuming they stay 8th)? .

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I've only paid a relatively small amount of attention to the details of the play-in, so I could be wrong here and someone else could correct me, but to my knowledge in order to qualify for the play-in and get the chance to fight for 8th, you have to finish within 4 games of the 8th seed. If we manage that and we are, say, 2.5 games behind Memphis after the 8 games, then we trigger the play-in games. The sitting 8th seed is given the advantage in those games: they only have to win one game to lock in the 8th seed for good, whereas the 9th seed would have to win both games to qualify and knock the 8th seed out.

In the event that two teams both fall within 4 games of the 8th seed (for us, that could easily mean Pelicans and Portland, for example) then the team with the highest winning percentage gets the 9th seed and qualifies. This is a big deal for us because of course,it basically kills our tie-break over Portland: before, we were undefeated against Portland this year, and now it doesn't matter. I quote here from an ESPN article https://www.espn.in/nba/story/_/id/2...mine-standings :

Quote:

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So, for example: The Trail Blazers, Pelicans and Kings are currently tied for ninth place in the Western Conference standings and are each eight games under .500. The Trail Blazers, however, have played 66 games (29-37), and the Pelicans and Kings have played 64 (28-36). As a result, Portland is one one-thousandth of a point ahead of both the Pelicans and Kings in winning percentage heading into Orlando.

Because the NBA chose to use winning percentage to break ties, if Portland has the same record as either New Orleans or Sacramento in Orlando -- and, thus, the same number of games at or under .500 for the season -- Portland will finish ahead of them despite having been swept by the Pelicans this season and having tied Sacramento.

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So what has to happen is this:

1) We have to win enough games to stay within 4 games of the Grizzlies
2) We have to finish with a higher win percentage than Portland, Sacramento, etc, which essentially just means winning more games than they do in the bubble
and if we do that then
3) We have to beat Memphis twice in a row

Which means that it's a pretty long road to travel. That's difficult, to make sure all of those things happen. But it's not impossible, I think, so at least that's something.

Jazz really are a great matchup for us. We match up extremely well defensively 1-5.

I'd like to see Melli get a lot of run with Zion tonight. I think you can play Gobert off the floor with a lineup of Zo, Jrue, BI, Zion, Melli (insert JJ for any of these guys too). They don't have the firepower to keep up with us without Bogdanovic unless Conley plays like its 2016.

Awwwww yeah.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pelafanatic

Jazz really are a great matchup for us. We match up extremely well defensively 1-5.

I'd like to see Melli get a lot of run with Zion tonight. I think you can play Gobert off the floor with a lineup of Zo, Jrue, BI, Zion, Melli (insert JJ for any of these guys too). They don't have the firepower to keep up with us without Bogdanovic unless Conley plays like its 2016.

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More worried about the officiating. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taker597

More worried about the officiating. lol

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Alvins rotations

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taker597

More worried about the officiating. lol

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As you should be. One of the refs of our game is Zach Zarba; the Pelicans have lost their last 7 games officiated by Zarba.

If that was not enough, one of the other refs is Michael Smith; the Jazz have won 9 straight games with Smith as an official.

Gonna be a tough one.

������ ��������’��@Zionwilliamson rocking his signature shoes designed by his little brother �� pic.twitter.com/wQMV7DWsQC

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 30, 2020

Still think the Noah PEs are fire

Gentry: Zion will go through pregame warmup and decision will be made after that.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) July 30, 2020

Some of the squad’s messages to be worn on the back of their jerseys ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ZCbdz7PGrE

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 30, 2020

Zion Williamson (re-conditioning) is available for tonight’s game vs. Utah.

— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) July 30, 2020

OPERATION ZION IS A GO

Aight boys, I'm back.

My body is ready.

Perfect timing. Just got back from BRB.

basketball

I am excited to watch this game. The Pelicans should be a great team soon. Maybe as soon as next year.


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Zion tough finish through contact for the first Pelican bucket back

Like Lonzo going for that pocket pass, was a bit off tempo

Zion scores again

Nice PNR look with Zion and Ingram, would have liked to see Inram make that pass cause Zion was wiiiiide open instead of taking the pullup

Zion sits after three minutes