28th January - New Orleans Pelicans @ Cleveland Cavaliers - 18-29

[Pelicanidae]

Ingram needs to improve his defense off-ball.

And on ball, frankly.

[13 - 3]

Oh goo we recovered from that Cleveland 16 - O run or something like that

[As I See It]

Denver is really laying an egg right now.

[akhan786]

This Cavs team is terrible. Silver needs to make sure they get a star in the draft soon

[Pelicanidae]

It's kind of sad seeing Cleveland roll out a lineup where their best interior defender is Larry Nance Jr, and instead of going inside at all with Zion on the court we just launch up consecutive threes.

[Pelicanidae]

Pelicans seem to forget Zion exists for "bursts" of play

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) January 29, 2020

Pointed this out earlier, and it's happening again now.

Zion may be playing 27 minutes now instead of 18, but he only actually gets included in the offense for 18 minutes of those 27.

[As I See It]

If Hart's entitled to a bad game, I think he's found one.

[luckyman]

By my count 11 of their last 15 shots have been 3s.

And I bet Gentry is over there saying "shoot with confidence guys."

REALLY need a new coach.

[Eman5805]

Is that Melli or Mirotic?

[Pelicanidae]

Really nice defense there. Not in terms of like, aesthetic smoothness, guys were a bit frantic, but every movement got covered and it ended in a deflection without a shot going up so that's good defense in terms of result.

[akhan786]

GIVE THE BALL TO ZION

[Pelicanidae]

It's a sign of how disgustingly bad these Cavs are that we're not even having a particularly great game in terms of taking advantage of matchups and playing defense, and we're up 18.

[As I See It]

Alvin, please consider this lineup at some point: Ball, Holiday, Ingram, Zion, and Melli.

Melli can do something that neither Favors or JAX can do....spread the court for Zion, Ingram, and Holiday to drive in the paint.

Now don't make it a one night stand.

[13 - 3]

Glad we did not trade up for Garland. Guess he is not playing tonight

[Pelicanidae]

It's a credit to Zion's ability as an off-ball player that he's been essentially ignored for vast stretches of this game, where nobody on the court seemed interested in passing it to him, and he's still going to finish with 18 points and a double double.

[Nichols]

And on ball, frankly.

He's an okay on-ball defender.. The off-ball D can be bad at times.

[Pelicanidae]

Fun fact, by the way, that pre-season blade action we ran for Zion to get him going downhill on a curl off the Redick screen? That really awesome action we ran that got him open looks at the rim multiple times?

Haven't run it for him once in his 4 games since getting back.

[Pelicanidae]

He's an okay on-ball defender.. The off-ball D can be bad at times.

I think that depends on matchups. He's sometimes okay on ball, but if the guy he's guarding is particularly quick or particularly strong, he has extreme difficulties. Those difficulties amplify if a screen gets involved.

[Pelicanidae]

It's a credit to Zion's ability as an off-ball player that he's been essentially ignored for vast stretches of this game, where nobody on the court seemed interested in passing it to him, and he's still going to finish with 18 points and a double double.

I said this assuming they'd get him at least two more shots with 4 minutes left to play.

They did not. He sits to close the game with 14 points and 9 rebounds.

[msusousaphone]

Zion has had, in just four games, at least 12 plays that were about to be monster dunks but a defender has gotten one lucky last ditch touch on the ball to disrupt it.

[akhan786]

Melli is currently more involved in the offense than Zion

[luckyman]

Media, you are going overkill with Zion.

Jrue had the big game tonight. Why are you interviewing him and Zion, who had a quiet game?

Let Jrue have his shine damn.

[Pelicanidae]

End of the game. Pels win 125-111, improving to 19-29.

Final Statlines
Jrue: 28 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 4 blocks. 10/16 shooting (62.5%) and 3/7 from 3 (42.9%). 1 turnover, 1 foul.
Ingram: 24 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists, 2 steals. 9/13 shooting (69.2%) and 4/4 from 3 (100%). 3 turnovers, 1 foul.
Lonzo: 5 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals. 2/10 shooting (20%), and 1/7 from 3 (14.3%). 4 turnovers, 0 fouls.
Zion: 14 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal. 7/13 shooting (53.8%). 0 turnovers, 1 foul.
Favors: 9 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block. 4/5 shooting (80%). 1 turnover, 3 fouls.

Bench
Redick: 15 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists. 4/10 shooting, 2/6 from 3 (33.3%). 4 turnovers, 2 fouls.
Melli: 11 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist. 4/6 shooting, 3/5 from 3
Jax: 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist. 3/5 shooting. 0 turnovers, 2 fouls.
Frank: 9 points, 2 rebounds. 3/5 shooting. 1 turnover, 1 foul.

[JJackisangry]

Jrue yet again making much quicker decisions on the ball. This is what we need to happen for he and Brandon to coexist. Excellent again tonight.

Idk who finally got in his ear or if this will continue, but good work. He needed to stop waltzing with the ball so casually.

[As I See It]

Good win...

Only two players with a negative +/-. So we played winning basketball with all but two players on the court tonight. I'll take that.