October 13th - New Orleans Pelicans @ San Antonio Spurs - Preseason - 3-0
Coming off our third consecutive pre-season win, this time against an actually very good team in the Utah Jazz, we hit the road again: this time, to San Antonio, to take on the Spurs. The Spurs have made the playoffs since the invention of the telephone, and if we want to make the playoffs this year, they're one of the teams we will be battling for one of those final few spots. Could this be the year that the Spurs finally fall out of the playoff race?
Here's the injury report, for this game:
Pelicans injury report - 10/13 at SAS:
— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) October 12, 2019
Darius Miller - Out (right Achilles surgery).
We'll have more specific information regarding certain players closer to the game, and I'll update the thread when those reports come out too. For example, is Jrue playing tonight when he didn't at home? Will we see Favors, or is he done for pre-season. That kind of thing.
The greatest competitive advantage that the Spurs have is their coaching. Their best player is Derozan who, frankly, is not that great. He's a very good player, sure, but he's not in that top 10, top 15, even top 25 range for me, and when that's your best player in the West you're already at a disadvantage. Lamarcus Aldridge too, is pretty good, but he's quite comfortably past his prime and his game is a little antiquated these days. Beyond that, they have a bunch of young guys. Some of them are good: Dejounte Murray, for example, Derrick White also. Some of them are not so good, or haven't proved it yet: Lonnie Walker comes to mind here.
What's the one thing making such a motley crew work out long after the Tim Duncan years? Pop. Pop and the rest of the staff. But coaching can only optimise players and develop them, it can't make them good if the goodness isn't there to begin with inside of the players. Do the Spurs have enough actually good NBA players to make the playoffs? Who knows? Not me.
Tonight should be a fun one. If there's one thing I'd like to see tonight, it's a little more defensive play early. So far we've found ways to put points up regardless of who's on court, but the defense has been wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it's looked very encouraging, and other times it's looked as flimsy as a spider's web. That's to be expected early, but against a Spurs team that isn't as fast as the Hawks or as deep and skilled as Utah, hopefully we can have a little more luck.
Let's have fun, and try and get the win! #WBD
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Originally Posted by JJackisangry
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