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Thread: January 17th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Sacramento Kings - 4-7

  1. #1

    Pelicans January 17th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Sacramento Kings - 4-7



    5 game losing streak hurting right now, but hey, at least we're taking on the 5-8 Sacramento Kings today so there's a chance for us to snap that streak and attempt to stem the tide of losses. Hey, I said a chance, not a guarantee.

    The Kings are 2-7 in their last 9 games after starting off the year 3-1, so they've actually had a fairly similar trajectory to us so far. Their problem however, is the inverse of ours: so far we are 11th in DRtg but only 23rd in ORtg: by comparison the Kings are 11th in ORtg, but dead last among the entire league in DRtg, at 30th.

    At the same time, they currently have a lot of injuries on the books: Hassan Whiteside is questionable for this game, as is Marvin Bagley. Now, neither Whiteside nor Bagley are particularly good players (in fact, Bagley is the worst 3rd year player in the NBA by Total Points Added this year so far, which is funny because Luka is Number 1 and the Kings passed on Luka for Bagley), but the fact remains that they are inside presences. Whiteside, at least, is 15 minutes of shot blocking and rebounding that the Kings now do not have. With only Richaun Holmes and Nemanja Bjelica to shore up the interior, tonight should be an exhibition of Pelicans charging at the rim. NAW, Zion, and Ingram should be at the basket damn near every play. Teams the Kings play shoot 58% from 2 so far this season, the highest in the league, and we should be taking advantage of that with our dominant interior scoring upside.

    The Kings don't really rebound (26th in the league) or get steals (28th), and they're only average shot blockers (12th) right now, and they're only very slightly better than us in terms of FT shooting (27th, when we're 28th). What keeps them afloat is that they don't really turn it over much (10th) and they're fairly efficient from the floor and from 3 (12th in both). Plus, while they don't convert the FTs often, they are Number 1 in the NBA in FT attempts per game, which helps.

    One thing that the Kings do have, which is fun, is Tyrese Haliburton, who I (and several others) really liked before the draft. My concern with him is that I thought he had to go to a team which already had a lead guard, so that his off-ball and secondary playmaking abilities could show up and maximise his value. In De'Aaron Fox, he has exactly the partner he needs, and has converted his college success into really promising early season play for the Kings. So he's someone both to watch out for and to enjoy watching.

    Hopefully tonight we can have a dominant scoring session in the paint, and try and shore up some of the slipping defense we've had recently. The Kings are one of the few soft spots in this current stretch of games and if we want to come out of January in anything even resembling okay shape, we need to win games like this.

    Let's go and get it.
    Basketball.

  2. #2


    Lonzo Ball remains Out.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Pelicanidae View Post


    Lonzo Ball remains Out.
    More NAW and Lewis. Great.

  4. #4
    ESPN is listing Zion as out in the matchup injury report. Is that true?

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkhorse985 View Post
    ESPN is listing Zion as out in the matchup injury report. Is that true?
    Official Pelicans injury report doesn't list Zion, nor is he mentioned as being out on Pelicans PR twitter, or the main Pelicans Twitter. No sign from the team itself that he's out.

    ESPN's injury report often leaves players on it for ages after they return, and I'm not sure why. Probably still just has him listed from that game he missed recently.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Darkhorse985 View Post
    ESPN is listing Zion as out in the matchup injury report. Is that true?
    The only good thing about ESPN these days is their website layout is the absolute best for everything.

    Other than that, you often have to look elsewhere for information.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by luckyman View Post
    The only good thing about ESPN these days is their website layout is the absolute best for everything.

    Other than that, you often have to look elsewhere for information.
    Their game app feels like it gets worse and worse every year.

    Especially for football.

  8. #8
    SVG from the pre-game stuff:

    The Kings score a lot but play bad D: priorities offensively?

    ''Same thing that's been our priorities, and that we need to do a better job of. We need to take care of the ball, we need to get out in transition and run more, we need to attack the paint - which we have been doing pretty well - either to score, get to the FT line, or make plays for other people.''

    When the 3 is falling for them, they score heavily. How do you balance the need to pack the paint and also protect the perimeter?

    ''It's something we're working on, we did a lot of work on that yesterday. It starts with getting back, they're a great running team on misses and makes, Fox pushes the ball as well as anyone, they're 3rd in the league in points in the paint with 52 a game, so we've gotta protect the paint. And they lead the league in getting the line, and that's one of the major problems for us, one of the reasons our defense has suffered. First 8 games of the year we were the best team in the league in limiting FT attempts, and over the last 3 games we're giving up 26 a game, that's something Sacramento does well so we have to keep them off the FT line.''

    Lots has been made of SACs defense and the points they allow, thoughts?

    ''Well, I don't really know, obviously we've watched them and done preparation and there are some things you want to try to do against them but I haven't analysed with their 'problem' is, or something like that. I have enough of our problems to analyse to figure out what we need to do better.''

    Does Bledsoe move back into the starting lineup? Did you like how he played last game?

    ''He does move back into the starting lineup, I have great respect for him the other night because he still wasn't near 100%, a lot of ten year veterans being not at 100% playing against the best team against the league on the road, would have chosen to sit that one out and instead he fought through and played. I have unbelievable respect for what he did the other night.''

    Next to Eric, who are you running with?

    ''We'll wait for game time for that.''

  9. #9


    And it's Hart who returns to the bench, as NAW remains the starting SG.

  10. #10
    Band of Skulls & Neon Trees ramsters60's Avatar
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    I have always tired to support him because of his shooting form, but if Melli doesn't start hitting some shots, he needs to stay on the sideline....shooters shoot, but this is getting silly....
    "we might make dollars, but we don't necessarily make sense"

    "always be sincere....whether you mean it or not"

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by ramsters60 View Post
    I have always tired to support him because of his shooting form, but if Melli doesn't start hitting some shots, he needs to stay on the sideline....shooters shoot, but this is getting silly....
    Shooters shoot, but of course, that presumes you're a shooter. We can use that defense for someone like Redick who has a decade plus of successful NBA shooting: keep feeding him minutes, it's just a rush, shooters shoot.


    Can't really use that defense for Melli. Aside from a couple of weeks last season, he has never looked like an NBA calibre shooter.

  12. #12
    Great PnR patience from NAW

  13. #13
    Calling that a charge was absurd lmao

  14. #14
    NAW with the fake and fadeaway drops in. Nice.

  15. #15
    Zion just with the burst to completely erase Holmes. Easy lay in.

  16. #16
    Zion boxes out Bagley, gets the board, goes full court and hits the nice wraparound. It was slightly tipped so it ended up falling short a little but I love the vision and the move.

  17. #17
    Letting Bagley get a step on you in the mid post is inexcusable. Im getting tired of this...

  18. #18

  19. #19
    Zion just posterised Metu

  20. #20
    Zion with the putback off KIra's miss

  21. #21
    Is that Zion's best dunk in the NBA so far?

  22. #22
    REDICK WITH THE BUZZER BEATER

    We're up 34-25 after 1

    Zion has 10 points on 5/6 shooting
    Ingram has 8 on 3/6

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by AusPel View Post
    Is that Zion's best dunk in the NBA so far?
    Depends on if you count pre-season. If you do, then no. If you don't, then maybe. But some of the halfcourt lob dunks may beat it.

  24. #24


    Oof.

  25. #25
    Zion with another dunk

    What did I say about Kings having a porous interior D?

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