April 6th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Atlanta Hawks - 22-27

[Pelicanidae]

Zion starts his return with 11 points on 4/4 shooting including 1/1 from the line in the first quarter.

[Pelicanidae]

Pels win the first 29-25

[Pelicanidae]

Zion up to 15/2/2/1 on 5/7 shooting in 11 minutes

[akhan786]

Is there a stat out there that recalculates a FG% after you take into account offensive rebounds that lead to a putback or foul? Zion?s would be absurd to look at

[AtlPelsFan]

I like Marshall

[DaFranchise80]

Ok, Thomas has earned a contract for the rest of the season.

[Pelicanidae]

Is there a stat out there that recalculates a FG% after you take into account offensive rebounds that lead to a putback or foul? Zion?s would be absurd to look at

I think Thinking Basketball did that in his latest video on Zion and he found that if you account for that, Zion shoots about 8% better at the rim than league average, which is very much in line with Giannis' 2020 statistics. Giannis in that season shot about 78% at the rim, so Zion likely shoots about 75% at the rim when taking the offensive rebounds into account, which is about 5% higher than his actual normal %age there.

[Pelicanidae]

Complete defensive breakdown

Also lmao at Gallinari's pump fake, always the herkiest nonsense in the league

[stevemadden504]

I.T offense never been the problem he's a defensive liability

[As I See It]

I.T offense never been the problem he's a defensive liability

We've been set straight...

He's bad at basketball and has been for a while.

[AusPel]

Lonzo has no ability to get to the rim, so when his outside shot isn't falling he can't get any cheap ones there to get him going. Huge hole in his game

[6warddude]

so we just letting young pick n roll to the rim freely plus atlanta getting hot from the 3 also....

[Pelicanidae]

I.T offense never been the problem he's a defensive liability

I mean, he has been pretty bad offensively for the last several years also.

[AusPel]

Lonzo is freaking quick, just his handles and finishing sux

[Pelicanidae]

Lonzo is freaking quick, just his handles and finishing sux

He's weird because he's tall, fast, and athletically talented, but he's just terrible at doing stuff with it.

[AusPel]

He's weird because he's tall, fast, and athletically talented, but he's just terrible at doing stuff with it.

Whereas his brother has handles and can finish at the rim

[Pelicanidae]

Whereas his brother has handles and can finish at the rim

More important than the finishing (where he's only mediocre, LaMelo shoots 61% at the rim which is pretty average; for comparison Jrue shoots 69% there) is the FT shooting Lamelo shoots 79% from the line so he isn't terrified of contact.

I know that Lonzo is shooting way better than his career averages from the line but it's a minuscule sample he plays scared still

[DaFranchise80]

I think I’m over the Steven Adams experiment.

[AtlPelsFan]

Steven Adams should not be starting

[Pelicanidae]

And that's 20 points for Zion.

If he can stay above 50% from the field this game, he ties Shaq for longest streak of consecutive 20pt/50%fg games in NBA history with 25.

[akhan786]

Wish we found a way to pair Zion with Vucevic

Its a travesty that his primary front court mate doesn’t require defensive gravity so you can double Zion every possession

[akhan786]

My dream starting 5

Lonzo
Bogdan
Ingram
Zion
Vucevic

[AtlPelsFan]

Isaiah Thomas and Hayes need to come in

[Pelicanidae]

Shout out to Lonzo for maximising his game despite his horrific shooting. Really playing his role hard on defense.

[DaFranchise80]

The Hawks just have too much firepower. Money well spent in free agency.