3rd December - New Orleans Pelicans vs Dallas Mavericks - 6-14

[Pelicanidae]

Dreadful loss last game, and sadly, I have very little reason to think this one will be much different. Of course, anything is possible, but we're in the middle of a fairly lengthy losing streak, Favors still isn't back, our defense has been backsliding after it made some small progress two weeks back, and Alvin Gentry is still the coach.

Here's the injury report:

Derrick Favors (personal reasons), Darius Miller (right Achilles surgery), Kenrich Williams (left ankle sprain) and Zion Williamson (right knee scope) are OUT tomorrow vs. Dallas. https://t.co/fkbVkroSoQ

— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) December 2, 2019

As of right now, the New Orleans Pelicans have the league's 15th rated offense and the 25th defense. We are the league's 5th fastest team. We are 17th in rebounds, 11th in assists, 11th in steals, and 16 in blocks. We are 14th overall in FG% and 25th in FT%. We are top 10 in only one of the 4 Offensive Factors, and top 15 in only one of the 4 Defensive Factors. The only thing we're particularly good at is shooting, as we're 4th in the NBA in 3pt%.

We suck.

That's fine though, it only matters that your opponent sucks more, so do they?

We're playing the Dallas Mavericks tonight. They're 13-6 and have won 7 of their last 8. They're led by Slovenian magician, Luka Doncic, who is - at the age of 20 - averaging 30/10/9 on 62% TS. He is currently orchestrating, and I am not kidding, the single most effective offense in NBA history. Through 19 games, the Mavs Offensive Rating is 117: the current record for best regular season ORtg by a team is 115.9, held by the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors. Only 9 other teams have ever averaged an Offensive Rating of at least 115 for an entire year. Every single one of them won at least 53 games that season.

So unfortunately, we're not facing a pushover.

And even more unfortunately, the areas Dallas excels in are also areas of weakness for us. We're 17th in the NBA in rebounds, they're 4th. We are a bottom 20 team in both fouls and turnovers, Dallas is ranked 8th and 1st respectively in those categories. They're a top 10 3pt shooting team too, even if they aren't quite as good as us there. They're top 10 in all 4 Offensive Factors.

Basically we've got our work cut out for us. Of course we can win, and there are ways to do that. One is to make Doncic's life difficult; we have elite defensive talent on this roster, as shocking as that might be to anyone who's watched us this year, and there is the potential there to try and ruin Doncic's night. We're also a competent offense when we aren't devolving into iso-ball nonsense, so the Mavericks' relatively soft defense (20th in the NBA) should be something we can take advantage of.

We can win this. Stranger things have happened. But it will only happen if we put our foot down on defense, and actually play like a team instead of losing our brains when it gets close. Whether or not we have the fortitude to do that is another question. Hopefully the team shows some fight tonight.

#WBD

[Creative]

We gonna win this one. I don't why but I have a hunch...

[UNO Gracias]

WBD

Won’t Beat Dallas

[Taker597]

So... Either a 2, 3rd, or 4th quarter collapse. Pick how you want your heart broken.

[Eman5805]

WBD

Won’t Beat Dallas

Now we're absolutely going to win.

[Taker597]

The Pelicans have the league's worst clutch offense, scoring only 79.1 points per 100 possessions during clutch situations, when the score is within five points in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime.Brandon Ingram**and**Jrue Holiday, the two players the Pelicans count on to create offense, are a combined 12-of-40 on clutch shots.**-- MacMahon


Woah... That's really bad

[Chavan30]

So... Either a 2, 3rd, or 4th quarter collapse. Pick how you want your heart broken.

Can I pick a 1st quarter that has us down by 20 playing catch up?

[P_B_&_G]

Now that we've all adjusted our expectations all of the remaining games should be enjoyable.

We suck so any chance at winning late in games is as much as we can hope for at this point.

Man, I can't wait until Zion gets in.

[Fedupfan]

Now that we've all adjusted our expectations all of the remaining games should be enjoyable.

We suck so any chance at winning late in games is as much as we can hope for at this point.

Man, I can't wait until Zion gets in.

You aren’t lying! My expectations have changed, and now I just watch the games like they don’t have a coach or a player that can lead them to close games. It makes things easier.

[Pelicanidae]

Odds Luka sets a new career high?

[Biasvasospasm]

When rookie Jaxson Hayes is the one thing standing between you and a 130 defensive rating, you're going to have a bad time.
I can't even get mad at Alvin. There is not adequate frontcourt talent to win games available right now. If you take away the best 3 big men from almost any team, they are going to struggle. I don't think he is terrible (his rotations are weird and he's a bit stubborn), but the available talent shouldn't beat anyone but the true dregs.

[Pelicanidae]

When rookie Jaxson Hayes is the one thing standing between you and a 130 defensive rating, you're going to have a bad time.
I can't even get mad at Alvin. There is not adequate frontcourt talent to win games available right now. If you take away the best 3 big men from almost any team, they are going to struggle. I don't think he is terrible (his rotations are weird and he's a bit stubborn), but the available talent shouldn't beat anyone but the true dregs.

I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that we've constantly managed to make games close, only to fall slightly short at the end of games.

If we were getting blown out, then sure, I'd accept the ''its just that we don't have the talent'' excuse. But when you lose by a handful of points in the same game where Gentry insists on playing 3 guards + Ingram + Melli for 15+ horrific minutes despite Okafor and Jax both being healthy, that's a game where the ''weird'' rotations are directly tied to that loss. You get outscored by, idk, 8 points in that span and then lose by 4, there's a connection there.

Same thing with him demanding 40 threes a game, same thing for him not demanding more drives in clutch time, same thing for him insisting on turning E'twaun into a lead ball handler, same thing for him not running screens for Redick until about 8 games in, etc etc. He's bad at his job, and while he's not responsible for every single loss we've had, he's one of the major forces behind at least a few of them.

[Pelicanidae]

And of course, Shaq's talking about how Porzingis (one of the NBA's least effective post-up scorers) needs to run into the post and demand the ball

TV ''analysts'' really are just dismal.

[Biasvasospasm]

I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that we've constantly managed to make games close, only to fall slightly short at the end of games.

If we were getting blown out, then sure, I'd accept the ''its just that we don't have the talent'' excuse. But when you lose by a handful of points in the same game where Gentry insists on playing 3 guards + Ingram + Melli for 15+ horrific minutes despite Okafor and Jax both being healthy, that's a game where the ''weird'' rotations are directly tied to that loss. You get outscored by, idk, 8 points in that span and then lose by 4, there's a connection there.

I have my issues with Alvin, but both Okafor and Melli are killing us defensively, and fouls make it hard to play Jaxson heavy minutes.

I'd agree when we had Kenrich we were playing those lineups too much. Right now, I don't know that Okafor/Melli lineups are any better than those awful Melli, Ingram and 3 SG lineups.

[Eman5805]

Awesome that we get to hear Joel Meyers. Let Miller say some stupid junk about Zion tonight. Meyers better keep that correct.

[Pelicanidae]

I am so proud of Jax there

Doncic put three fakes on him in a row, and Jax didn't bite on any of them.

[Biasvasospasm]

Great first few defensive sequences by Jaxson. I love that he didn't reach or leave his feet on those pump fakes.

[Pelicanidae]

Good read there for the steal from Ingram

[Pelicanidae]

Ingram got another steal there, but Jax did all the work. He sunk back to threaten the lob pass, which forced Doncic into trying the pocket pass in a tight angle once Jax recovered, which let Ingram get in there.

[Pelicanidae]

Lonzo jacking up 3s within 5 seconds of the clock?

Never ends.

[Pelicanidae]

Porzingis has been lowkey terrible all year so if they want to try and keep feeding him, I'll take it

[Nichols]

And of course, Shaq's talking about how Porzingis (one of the NBA's least effective post-up scorers) needs to run into the post and demand the ball

TV ''analysts'' really are just dismal.

[Nichols]

Porzingis has been lowkey terrible all year so if they want to try and keep feeding him, I'll take it

He was killing us last game until we put Ingram on him.. So it kind of makes for them to go to him..

[Pelicanidae]

Jrue had to close out on that, big lapse in judgement not to do that.

[Pelicanidae]

He was killing us last game until we put Ingram on him.. So it kind of makes for them to go to him..

Yeah sure, but the thing about Porzingis is that he's a poor decision maker, and extremely none-physical. If you want to run the offense through Porzingis, who misses even the most elementary reads, rather than Doncic who is basically a savant, I will absolutely take the former every time.