4th January - New Orleans Pelicans @ Sacramento Kings - 11-24
After suffering a pretty heavy loss against the Lakers in our last game, we take on the Kings tonight. It's kind of rough doing road back to backs at any time, but especially after taking such a heavy defeat in which our key guys played relatively heavy minutes (Jrue and Ingram both played 35+ minutes, Lonzo and Favors both played 33+). Further than that, the post-game data from NBA Stats shows that Jrue spent 60% of his on-court time guarding either Lebron or AD, and whether or not you think he did a good job, that's a ridiculous burden to place on the shoulders of a 6'4 guard who is also expected to be a key piece offensively.
Tonight, we have a slightly easier challenge in the Kings.
Another West Coast #PelicansGameday 💥
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 4, 2020
⏰: 9:00 PM
📺: @FOXSportsNOLA
🎙: @ESPNRadioNOLA 100.3 FM
📱: Follow along on the Pelicans app!#WBD | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/xBcL90zFoP
The Kings are 13-22, so their record is a little bit more closely related to ours than LA's was. The Kings have also only won 1 game since December 17th, going, 1-8 over that stretch. So they're not winning much, recently.
The Kings are bottom 10 in rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per game. They are 19th in FG%, and 22nd in 3pt%. They play at the slowest pace in the NBA, dead last in 30th, so we should be able to take some advantage there as long as we can avoid getting heavily bogged down into half-court play. Kings are 21st in ORtg, and 18th in DRtg, so a touch worse than us offensively and better than us defensively.
The Kings recently got Fox back, which is good on one level because it means they're more fun to watch, but on the other hand it does present us with a challenge. We have the personnel to guard him, of course, with Jrue and Lonzo (who has been playing better recently) but the question of whether the Pelicans defense will show up on any given night is a bit of a crapshoot. Not counting a game where he only scored 2 points before getting injured within 2 minutes, Fox has averaged about 22ppg in his last 5 full games, and given that he's only shooting 31% from 3, it's not because he's hitting bombs.
Fox is shooting 61% from 2pt range over his last 5 games, which obviously includes at-rim attempts, and as a consequence he's also getting to the line around 6 times per game. There's a strong responsibility on our perimeter defense to stymy his drives, and another responsibility on our big men to prevent him from waltzing up to the rim with regularity.
Aside from that, it's Buddy Hield, as it is always Buddy Hield. Buddy is only shooting about 37% from 3 this year, a big drop off from his last few seasons, and frankly that's trending downwards: only 35% since December 1st. Will he get his Danny Green opportunity tonight to break his minor slump, or can we put enough pressure on him to remove one of the Kings' largest threats? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.
Try to bounce back from last game, Pels. This is a winnable game with just a bit of elbow grease and a touch of luck. #WBD.
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Originally Posted by JJackisangry
