18th January - New Orleans Pelicans vs Los Angeles Clippers - 16-26
Despite the best effort of Rudy Gobert and the officials, the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Jazz in OT last game, claiming back the win they stole from us earlier in the month when the dreaded No-Call went down. We have now won 9 of our 12 games since December 23rd, including 5 of our last 7. That's not bad, even acknowledging that many of those games were against terrible teams (Detroit, Knicks, Chicago come to mind). Especially when you consider our injury woes. Speaking of injury woes, tonight we take on the Los Angeles Clippers, and here's the injury report for this game:
5 Pelicans listed as OUT, JJ Redick is questionable (Left Hamstring Strain) for Saturday’s game vs the Clippers
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 17, 2020
Story: https://t.co/xW1g94ITBs
by @Jim_Eichenhofer
5 players being listed as out is bad, of course, but it's important to note these aren't new guys. The 5 are Jrue, Kenrich, Zion, Miller, and Okafor, all of whom missed last game too, and indeed many games in the New Year. JJ is listed as being questionable.
Now, we aren't the only team missing someone:Per Clippers game notes, Paul George (Hamstring Strain) is OUT for tomorrow’s game against the #Pelicans.
— Daniel Sallerson (@dsallerson) January 17, 2020
No Paul George.
Clippers are 29-13. They are ranked 5th in the NBA on offense and 7th in defense, as well as 8th in pace; this is despite starting the year without PG and having rested Kawhi for a bunch of games too. Strangely enough, they haven't really gone on any runs; they're only 5-2 in their last 7, just like we are, but they've never really had a losing streak either. They've only had consecutive losses once this season, and it was back in early November.
11th in FG%, 11th in 3PT%, 10th in FT% (and 2nd in attempts), the Clippers are a pretty efficient team all around. They don't foul either, being the 5th least foul-prone team in the league. They're 3rd in rebounds, and are top 10 in 3 of the Four Offensive Factors. They're good at basketball.
Obviously with no PG, their lead guy is Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi's putting up 27/7/5 on +2rTS%, playing only 32 minutes per night. All of his advanced metrics are stellar. There's no need for me to tell you that we need to focus on preventing him from taking over. Aside from that, it's just a case of trying to attack inside where they lack a major interior defensive presence, and doing our best defensively.
Let's go and do what we can. No shame in a loss for this one, but it would be a real coup if we could pull it out. #WBD
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Originally Posted by msusousaphone
