February 19th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Phoenix Suns - 12-16

Steven Adams listed on injury report for tomorrow night?s game vs. Phoenix @SmoothieKing | #Pelicans https://t.co/44fTFBW9WN

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) February 18, 2021

I think we all saw this coming: after visibly tweaking his ankle and not returning to the game last time around, Adams is listed as doubtful on the Pelicans injury report, with an ankle sprain.

Tonight we play the Phoenix Suns, who are 17-10 (same record Portland had last game) and who are one of only 2 teams in the NBA to have both their offense and defense rank inside the top 10 league wide: 10th in ORtg, 7th in DRtg. The only other team to achieve that is the Utah Jazz, who have the league's best record.

Part of this is pace: the Suns play the second slowest game in the league, so they have a bit more time to set their defense, but that's not the entire thing. The breakout of Mikal Bridges into his full defensive power, CP3 somehow still having it despite his age, Devin Booker improving to be not-disastrous on that end, and the solid team D of guys like Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder are helping them a lot. Ayton, too, is having his best defensive season despite still being a bit of a stiff in space.

The strength of Phoenix's offense doesn't come from red hot shooting, either. They're a solid team in FG% and 3pt%, falling 10th and 16th in those ranks respectively, but part of what makes their offense so potent is the lack of mistakes: they turn the ball over barely 13 times a game, 4th lowest in the NBA, and when they get fouled they make sure it counts, averaging 83.5% from the line as a team - that's 2nd in the NBA.

Nor, really, is their defense based around getting tons and tons of steals and blocks - they rank bottom 5 in both categories. Instead, they just don't foul (bottom 10 in the league in foul rate) and they give up the 2nd fewest three point attempts in the league.

If we want a win tonight, it's all going to be based around our shooters hitting, us avoiding fouling on defense, and exploiting their relatively mediocre paint defense (19th in the league in 2pt shots allowed).

Which isn't actually asking for too much, really, it's just asking for guys to play with their brains switched on and hit their shots, but for the Pelicans that appears to be a constant struggle. Let's see how it goes.

Awwwe, its like Free Willy but in basketball....

You know CP3 will turn it on coz its his old team.

Lots I could say but in reality I just hope we stay in touch and get more practice closing out tight games and fingers crossed get the last run and Ingram makes up for the Portland panic.

20 mins of Jax coming up

:clap:

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Originally Posted by Impose

Awwwe, its like Free Willy but in basketball....

You know CP3 will turn it on coz its his old team.

Lots I could say but in reality I just hope we stay in touch and get more practice closing out tight games and fingers crossed get the last run and Ingram makes up for the Portland panic.

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Over the month of February, you'd be hard pressed to find a wing playing better than Ingram. Kawhi might be the only one.

And that Portland loss was from usual bad defense and bad coaching on the last possession.

This game tonight might be a crossing point. Either they get tired of losing and blow PHX out again, or that last loss too demoralizing, and they get blown out by PHX again.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Over the month of February, you'd be hard pressed to find a wing playing better than Ingram. Kawhi might be the only one.

And that Portland loss was from usual bad defense and bad coaching on the last possession.

This game tonight might be a crossing point. Either they get tired of losing and blow PHX out again, or that last loss too demoralizing, and they get blown out by PHX again.

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Cant I acquaint you with a team called the Boston Celtics

Who blows bigger lead Monty or Pelicans ?

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Originally Posted by AusPel

Cant I acquaint you with a team called the Boston Celtics

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WTH does Boston have anything to do with what I said?

The Efficiency Landscape. Last 15 Games. What Jumps Out? pic.twitter.com/xKOuu8Rt6P

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) February 19, 2021

Over the last 15 games, Pels are the #2 offense in the NBA and the 28th defense. Explains a lot.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

The Efficiency Landscape. Last 15 Games. What Jumps Out? pic.twitter.com/xKOuu8Rt6P

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) February 19, 2021

Over the last 15 games, Pels are the #2 offense in the NBA and the 28th defense. Explains a lot.

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Nets defense is just as bad however the offense might be enough to win them a championship if healthy. Jazz look brutal this year but will they fizzle out again in playoffs?

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Originally Posted by 13 - 3

Nets defense is just as bad however the offense might be enough to win them a championship if healthy

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I doubt it, honestly. I wouldn't be too surprised if they made the finals, though I don't think that's guaranteed, but I'd be pretty shocked if they knocked off either the Lakers or the Clippers, who are the Western favourites imo. Lakers offense looks bad in that chart but AD has missed a ton of time recently for his ankle, and if he's healthy for the playoffs that offense will improve and they're just o much better than the Nets defensively.

Clippers, meanwhile, are world's better than Nets on D (not quite as good as LA) but already have an offense that's in full fire and isn't that much worse than Brooklyn's.

Hard to see Brooklyn winning a chip unless their defense improves dramatically or everyone else gets injured, imo.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

WTH does Boston have anything to do with what I said?

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Because Jaylen Brown is playing out of his ********ing mind

Tatum isn't far behind either

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Originally Posted by AusPel

Because Jaylen Brown is playing out of his ********ing mind

Tatum isn't far behind either

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In fairness, he said in February specifically, and neither Brown nor Tatum have been particularly special this month.

I agree in terms of the season overall, but if you're just taking February then it's Ingram, sure.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

The Efficiency Landscape. Last 15 Games. What Jumps Out? pic.twitter.com/xKOuu8Rt6P

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) February 19, 2021

Over the last 15 games, Pels are the #2 offense in the NBA and the 28th defense. Explains a lot.

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OPINION: You could remove the Pelican Logo and replace it Zion Williamson's name and the graph would probably no less true.

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Originally Posted by AusPel

Because Jaylen Brown is playing out of his ********ing mind

Tatum isn't far behind either

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You didn't pay attention to what I wrote. Compared to BI...no and no.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

You didn't pay attention to what I wrote. Compared to BI...no and no.

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You wanted wings around or better than the level of Ingram. The media voted Brown as an All-Star starter over Irving

Not sure why you would want to limit your criteria to 2 and a half weeks

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Originally Posted by AusPel

You wanted wings around or better than the level of Ingram. The media voted Brown as an All-Star starter over Irving

Not sure why you would want to limit your criteria to 2 and a half weeks

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Because someone said BI has been playing poorly lately.

Media vote? Jesus Christ dude. Run along now.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Because someone said BI has been playing poorly lately.

Media vote? Jesus Christ dude. Run along now.

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He specifically referred to the Portland game. Then you chose to truncate your time saver critique of BI in the clutch this season to an arbitrary length of the month of Feburary, because reasons. Coolio.

Media can have their agendas more than we're comfortable with, but what possible agenda could they have with repping Jaylen Brown?

I asked Stan Van Gundy if they would like to increase Zion's ball handling and play initiating responsibilities over the long term to determine where the limit of how much he can handle it is -

"The long term vision, at least on my part, is more and more and more of that" pic.twitter.com/8Nmvuv8Xik

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) February 19, 2021

Asked about Zion's responsibility as a ballhandler and the potential of ramping that up more and more, here's the answer:

''Definitely long term, no question, long term. I've talked to him about it. It's going to take even increased conditioning from where he is now, and he's not in bad shape now in any sense but it's different from being in point guard shape to bring it up all the time, it's a different level. Long term for sure I'd like to do more of it, but it's going to take more... we're going to have to figure things out better and he has to develop the stamina to do it, doing it on dead balls and free throws but to do what a Lonzo does to take every outlet and every inbounds and take it up, that's something that he hasn't done. At least not on this level. It'll take some time but the long term vision on my part is more and more and more of that.''

Zion begins doing Zion things

Very slow start for Ingram.

Bled doesn't care again

Our point of attack defense is just, godawful

Lmao at Mikal Bridges airball

Zion's passing has become so multi-faceted so quickly

Hernangomez bailing us out from that TO

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Zion's passing has become so multi-faceted so quickly

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How high do you think his ceiling is as a playmaker? My projections have definitely gone up personally.

Bledsoe has had a few really nice drives early

At least Bled's brining it offensively. Wish he could muster the want to actually makes things difficult for his guard counterparts on the other end of the floor

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Originally Posted by Funcrusher

How high do you think his ceiling is as a playmaker? My projections have definitely gone up personally.

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I thought he was going to be very good coming in from college, but not this good this quickly. I thought his peak would probably be around 5 assists a game, towards the end of his rookie deal. Right now, it's looking like that could come much quicker than expected, and the ceiling may well be more like 7.

Of course, assists per game are not the best measure of passing but that's a vague idea

The offense clickin right now

Laughing extremely hard at Cam Johnson trying to defend Zion on an isolation drive

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

I thought he was going to be very good coming in from college, but not this good this quickly. I thought his peak would probably be around 5 assists a game, towards the end of his rookie deal. Right now, it's looking like that could come much quicker than expected, and the ceiling may well be more like 7.

Of course, assists per game are not the best measure of passing but that's a vague idea

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Yeah I'm starting to see his playmaking ceiling as LeBron-lite I think. The development of his processing ability on offense has grown rapidly from college to now. He's gone from being simply willing to pass to making advanced reads off a live dribble at an increasingly frequent rate. He's also making passes now that don't immediately lead to assists but keep the defense in scramble mode and lead to secondary/tertiary opportunities.

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Originally Posted by Funcrusher

Yeah I'm starting to see his playmaking ceiling as LeBron-lite I think. The development of his processing ability on offense has grown rapidly from college to now. He's gone from being simply willing to pass to making advanced reads off a live dribble at an increasingly frequent rate. He's also making passes now that don't immediately lead to assists but keep the defense in scramble mode and lead to secondary/tertiary opportunities.

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Yeah I mean, gotta be careful to emphasise the ''lite'' part of that. Lebron's a top 5 passer of all time, of course. But in terms of just general style and approach, I agree, even if the actual peak of his passing powers are likely to be nowhere near Lebron's.

We give up fastbreak points so easily it's annoying

Oh hey look, Zion/JJ two man game results in another bucket, this time with Zion running the DHO.

CP3 is just dismantling whatever passes for our defense with zero effort. King stuff.

So sick of this team not containing dribble penetration and being late to rotate. Players stop moving after the ball swings once or twice. This is game 29, WTF?

Josh Hart with the terrible ''I'm just gonna jump and figure out what to do when I'm already in the air'' move that ends up with Zion somehow finishing that through two defenders while crammed onto the baseline lmao

Zion up to 14/3/2 on 5/6 shooting in 12 minutes

*Insert he-can't-keep-getting-away-with-this meme*

Hayes is literally a chicken with his head cut off on D. ********ed up the switch with Zion a couple of possessions ago and as a result ended up in eternal scramble mode. On a positive note he's probably one of our more active players defensively, which is also somehow terrifying to realize.

EDIT: I realize this post is a bit late lol, was holding onto this for a while

Honestly, why are we trapping CP3

Sure, give the 3rd best passer in NBA history completely unguarded teammates to pass to, that'll work

Love that super snappy extra pass from Hart to Lonzo for the 3

Lonzo with probably his nicest lob for a while there to Hayes in transition

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Honestly, why are we trapping CP3

Sure, give the 3rd best passer in NBA history completely unguarded teammates to pass to, that'll work

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The alternative is letting CP just absolutely cook our guards. I miss Jrue, man.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Yeah I mean, gotta be careful to emphasise the ''lite'' part of that. Lebron's a top 5 passer of all time, of course. But in terms of just general style and approach, I agree, even if the actual peak of his passing powers are likely to be nowhere near Lebron's.

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I would probably consider LeBron closer to top 10 than top 5, but that's ultimately a small nitpick. Your point still stands.

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Originally Posted by Funcrusher

The alternative is letting CP just absolutely cook our guards. I miss Jrue, man.

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I mean sure, but CP3 is a better passer than he is a off-the-dribble penetrator at this point in his career. You've got very little chance at stopping either given our guard D, but if I had to pick my poison it would be making CP3 take guys off the dribble rather than just letting him dissect built-in openings.

We're going to give up 70 this half, and we're not even playing at a super fast pace. Ugh

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Originally Posted by Funcrusher

We're going to give up 70 this half, and we're not even playing at a super fast pace. Ugh

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Sure, but on the plus side, so are they :hihi:

You know, it's weird how much better Lonzo shoots at home versus on the road.

So far this year, he's a 43.5% 3pt shooter in home games, 34% on the road. It's a pretty huge difference.

Ingram's looked a lot better in the last few minutes than he did in the first quarter, good to see.