February 6th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Memphis Grizzlies - 9-12

[Pelicanidae]

Quick flight home and we're back at it tonight!

🏀 vs. Memphis
🕗 8 p.m. CT
📺 @FOXSportsNOLA
📻 100.3 FM @ESPNRadioNOLA @SmoothieKing | #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/xQMM4cNHcW

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) February 6, 2021

Picked up a W last night on the road in Indiana, avenging our earlier season loss to the same team, and fittingly we took it from them narrowly. Just as they beat us.

Tonight we're back home to take on the 9-8 Grizzlies, currently sat in 9th seed of the West.

They are the 5th best defense in the league, led behind such defensive stalwarts as Brandon Clarke, Xavier Tillman, and some other guys I wish we'd drafted. Meanwhile, their offense is 22nd in the league. Admittedly a fairly large portion of their earlier season has been played without Ja Morant, who presents both a mild liability on defense and a big upgrade on offense, so these statistics may not be particularly representative of their current state of play.

The main thing that I would be concerned about tonight is turnovers. We've proven very susceptible to them so far this season despite a few good recent games, and the Grizzlies are #1 in the NBA in steals per game, and 3rd best in forcing opponent turnovers. We will have to be extremely careful tonight to try and keep the ball safe, and that goes for everyone: Zion, Ingram, Lonzo, and Bledsoe have all had some heavy turnover games this year so far, and even low minutes guys like NAW have managed to cough it up at alarming rates. If we do that, we hand them the avenue to bolstering their weak offense: tons more opportunities.

I'm unsure what to think about our perimeter defense this game. It's looked better recently but has been overall very poor this season, and the Grizzlies are a team with night-and-day shooters. Their guys are either struggling hard, like Dillon Brookes at 30.1% and Ja Morant at 26.5%, or they're shooting the roof off the place like Gorgui Dieng (51.4% from 3 on 2.5 a game) or another guy I wanted us to draft, Desmond Bane (50.8% on 3.8 per game). This could all go very right for us tonight, or very very wrong.

One thing I'm not overly worried about is minutes. While Ingram hit 39 minutes last game, Zion played only 31, Adams only 30, Bledsoe only 27, and nobody off the bench hit 25 minutes of play. That should mean most guys are ready to go for a full game's worth, even if those minutes creep up to 35 or so: the only guy I'd be watching is BI. Not really fair to play someone 40 minutes a night on a back to back, imo.

I think this is more winnable than our records imply. Go in there confident, put the clamps on some people, keep showing that defensive improvement, and watch Jonas Valanciunas try to defend Zion on drives.

[Funcrusher]

Ready to for us to face the guy that we should've taken with the #1 pick two years ago

[Pelicanidae]

Ready to for us to face the guy that we should've taken with the #1 pick two years ago

Some people actually believe that, don't give them any fuel

[luckyman]

Some pretty important things to mention. Valanciunas has been out due to covid protocols the last few games and I'm not sure if he's back tonight.

Memphis is a team therefore that is missing 3 starters and have lost their last two pretty badly. They got stomped by the team the Pelicans just beat, Indiana (was a b2b for Memphis).

Houston was up by 25 with 4:00 mins left in the 4th before calling off the dogs.

With Tillman, Clarke and Anderson as their front court while JJJ and Valanciunas are out, this should be a mismatch and possible blowout against the strength of the Pelicans team.

So this will be another game with mismatches all over the floor for the Pelicans, against a wounded and scrappy team despite their record. Expect to see the same weird college style defenses the Pelicans need to be able to solve.

But of course, this game depends on which Pelicans back court shows up.

[Funcrusher]

Some people actually believe that, don't give them any fuel

Yeah I know, I was referencing MM's absurd take way back in the start of the season, but yeah, it's probably not worth it invoking this topic again.

[Pelicanidae]

Some pretty important things to mention. Valanciunas has been out due to covid protocols the last few games and I'm not sure if he's back tonight.

Memphis is a team therefore that is missing 3 starters and have lost their last two pretty badly. They got stomped by the team the Pelicans just beat, Indiana (was a b2b for Memphis).

Houston was up by 25 with 4:00 mins left in the 4th before calling off the dogs.

With Tillman, Clarke and Anderson as their front court while JJJ and Valanciunas are out, this should be a mismatch and possible blowout against the strength of the Pelicans team.

So this will be another game with mismatches all over the floor for the Pelicans, against a wounded and scrappy team despite their record. Expect to see the same weird college style defenses the Pelicans need to be able to solve.

But of course, this game depends on which Pelicans back court shows up.

I'm not sure about Valanciunas either, he's not mentioned on the Basketball-Ref injury report but that's sometimes a bit off so I wouldn't take that too seriously.

Tillman's actually been great this year, and has had the second best opponent at-rim FG differential in the league so far this year. His opponents shoot almost 18% worse than their averages against him at the rim.

The question will be what happens when that meets Zion? Given what we've seen Zion do to Rudy Gobert and co, I can imagine that differential might drop a little bit after tonight

[Funcrusher]

Hopefully though this team has their legs under them tonight on a back to back, unlike the Sac game where we started off nice (I think?) but ultimately fell flat. Get our first look at Tillman and Bane too, which is admittedly a little bittersweet, but, welp *shrug*

[Pelicanidae]

[pelicanchamp]

Pelicans are going to win this game. I would love to see more Hart, JJ, and Willy tonight. We need to get more from the bench. I will never regret drafting ZION over Ja. That?s just being contrarian. Also, Lonzo is looking more confident. If he has another good night I will be very pleased. Just continue being consistent and stop hesitating. If we win tonight I bet the team will develop and have way more confidence and get used to winning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DaPelFromHell]

Jonas Valanciunas is back tonight. I got him in fantasy. He will likely be on a minute restriction since he?s been out for quite a while.

I want this team to win, but also want a higher draft pick in such a great draft especially at the top. But to eventually become a great team we need to develop a winning attitude and get a taste for winning. I want to see more of Kira as he is the future of this team at point guard. Hopefully Lonzo and JJ keep playing good so we can move them to get Kira & NAW more minutes as they are the future backcourt unless we move them or draft someone better.

[13 - 3]

Ready to for us to face the guy that we should've taken with the #1 pick two years ago

To be fair it has been said that Griff. Tried to trade up(Sell those Lakers picks)for the #2 pick too that year .

[hornetzplaya]

I will be watching Zo closely tonight. Will he somewhat consistent after a pretty good game last night? I'm just looking for a 15 pt 6ast 5rbs type of game staying pretty efficient shooting. Like 46% from the field with less than 5 TO. Can you do it Zo?

[As I See It]

How soon we forget....

Last year, in mid January, a particular player's minutes were significantly reduced and Nicolo Melli was inserted in his place. The team took off (albeit ZW was cleared to play also).

This year, in early February, a particular player has been benched in favor of Willie H'Gomez and the team is playing its best ball of the year. It's like "de ja' vu" all over again.

Coincidence? Who knows...

[luckyman]

Just want to mention...just saw Jokic wind up and wack Whiteside across the head going for a block. Sent Whiteside flying and stayed down holding his head.

Not only was Jokic not ejected. There was no foul call at all.

NBA basketball is the worst officiated sport with the worst rules in all professional sports.

That is all.

[AusPel]

Jokic scored 50 and Haliburton beasted again

[JJackisangry]

Just want to mention...just saw Jokic wind up and wack Whiteside across the head going for a block. Sent Whiteside flying and stayed down holding his head.

Not only was Jokic not ejected. There was no foul call at all.

NBA basketball is the worst officiated sport with the worst rules in all professional sports.

That is all.

It’s all arbitrary. Unfortunately they just happen to ‘arbitrarily’ favor certain teams. Funny how that happens.

[ragincaucasian]

Just want to mention...just saw Jokic wind up and wack Whiteside across the head going for a block. Sent Whiteside flying and stayed down holding his head.

Not only was Jokic not ejected. There was no foul call at all.

NBA basketball is the worst officiated sport with the worst rules in all professional sports.

That is all.

To be fair the refs probably hate Whiteside like everyone else does. They looked the other way on that one lol

[Pelicanidae]

Good start, some nice stuff early. Ja seems fairly conservative in most of his early moves, wonder if he's trying to save himself a bit

[Funcrusher]

I like that we're going to Zion early even though they're building a wall on him. Opens the offense up so much when he has the ball to kick out to our perimeter guys, particularly when they're making a conscious effort to collapse on him in the paint

[Pelicanidae]

Lonzo shot falling early still. The hot streak continues

[Funcrusher]

Officials daring each other to call fouls on Zion

[Funcrusher]

LONGBOI

[Funcrusher]

I heart Kira Lewis

[Pelicanidae]

I heart Kira Lewis

Despite his troubles, particularly with finishing at the rim, he's so clearly the guy most ready to be the PG on this team.

[AusPel]

When did Jonas become Steff Curry