23rd December - New Orleans Pelicans @ Portland Trailblazers - 7-23
We follow up a streak-breaking win against the Timberwolves with a loss to the worst team in basketball, and now we hit the road to take on the Blazers. The Blazers are not a good team, per se, but they do still tend to beat the terrible teams. Their record is currently 14-16, so they're a touch below .500, but recently that's been trending upwards: they've won 5 of their last 6, and that's largely due to them hitting a soft spot in the schedule where they can feast on some sub-par teams. In this 6 game stretch, they've lost to Denver but have picked up wins against Golden State, Minnesota, Phoenix, and the Orlando Magic. Tonight, at home, they hit another sub-par team in the New Orleans Pelicans, who have dropped 14 of their last 15.
Are we injured? Do we have that excuse? Let's look at the injury report.#Pelicans injury report - 12/23 at POR
— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) December 23, 2019
OUT: Darius Millers (Right Achilles Surgery), Zion Williamson (Right Knee Scope)
The answer is no: aside from Miller, who will possibly miss the whole season, and Zion, who has been out all year so far, we are entirely healthy. That means Favors, Lonzo, Jrue, Ingram, Redick, NAW, Jaxson, the entire crew. We cannot use the ''team is injured'' excuse for a loss tonight.
Speaking of Zion, here's a little Zion update.
💪 @Zionwilliamson at the Michael Krzyzewski Fitness Center
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 23, 2019
Pelicans in town to play the Trail Blazers tomorrow night pic.twitter.com/N3D10LCgWv
Anyway, what about the Blazers? Well, they're 10th in ORTG, 18th in DRTG, 6th in 3PT%, 1st in FT% (but only 24th in FTAs), 6th in rebounds, 2nd in blocks, and 30th in assists. What does that mean? Well, they make their threes, they make their FTs but aren't incredible at drawing fouls, they eat up all the boards and they don't pass the ball. To some extent, that should make it an easier night for us on defense: their high ORTG is not the product of dynamic offense, just the product of people hitting all their shots. It's always easier to defend a stagnant offense than a flowing one, and the Blazers create fewer assists than any team in the league.
That said, they do make their shots, which is a bad sign for a Pelicans team that has (despite being statistically a touch better recently) historically been unable to stop anyone doing anything.
What do we need to do to win this? Simple: play strict defense and actually move the ball. It's within our capacity to win this game. This isn't some pipe-dream, where a win would be a minor miracle. This is just a case of the team needing to come out and execute. If they can do that, and Gentry can resist the urge to play 4 guards at a time, we can win this one. Does that mean we will? Frankly, I have little faith, but it is possible.
Let's go and do our best. #WBD
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Originally Posted by SunshinePumper
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