November 29th - New Orleans Pelicans vs Philadelphia 76ers - 9-9

[Pelicanidae]

See you tonight!

🏀: vs Philadelphia 76ers
🕖: 7:00 pm CT
📺: @BallySportsNO
📻: @995WRNO
#Pelicans | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/2upiM8MvYC

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 29, 2023

Injury report:

CJ McCollum has been upgraded to probable for tonight's game https://t.co/NIMLr3i2Pj

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 29, 2023

Now, CJ is listed as probable - he's already said he is playing.

After this, we play Spurs and then we're @ Chicago. CJ will not be cleared to fly by that point but will have been cleared by Dec 4th. Therefore he will miss the Chicago game, but he will be there to play in Sacramento on the 4th. It is also possible that Trey will have returned by that point.

But that's the future: today we take on the 12-5 Philadelphia 76ers. They're the league's 2nd best offense but a mediocre defense, and admittedly that record is bloated by a hot early start; they're 4-4 over their last 8. That said, their last 8 has been a tough schedule, facing Boston, Minnesota, and the Pacers buzzsaw offense twice, so we have to assume that they're still on top form. They've scored at least 119 points in 5 of their last 6 games.

The task for tonight is going to be the re-integration of CJ into the lineup while maintaining defense against a team which is large. To me, that means we're going to need a lot of JV minutes and a lot of Zeller minutes - this is not a night for random Nance lineups, thank you Willie Green. Similarly, against such a big team the paint will be naturally more cramped unless you force it to open, so I'm hoping for a fair amount of CJ-Hawkins minutes to provide space for BI, Zion, and JV, whichever combination gets played together. Herb and Dyson avoiding foul trouble so they can stay on Maxey will also be vital.

This is the kind of game that can be lost even when healthy: the Sixers are a great team, playing really well. But with CJ back, I'm hoping to see more energy, a lot more attempts from behind the arc, and a lot of fight. This game is tough to win, but that doesn't mean you should just give up - even if we lose, they should walk out wounded.

Let's see what happens.

[donato]

Just looked at Herb’s stats. They’re up across the board this season. Most notably for me are his Fg% and 3pt%.

[Pelicanidae]

Just looked at Herb’s stats. They’re up across the board this season. Most notably for me are his Fg% and 3pt%.

He's been great. Really awesome.

And defensively, as good as ever - improved, even.

His STL% is 2.9% and his BLK% is 4.4%.

That means he's 17th in the NBA in BLK%, and is the only player in the top 20 of BLK% to also have a STL% over 2.5.

By contrast, he's 8th in the NBA in STL% and is the only other player in the top 15 to have a BLK% over 4.0 - closest anyone else comes is Caruso, whose BLK% is 3.4%.

He's 5th in the NBA in DBPM, despite having one of the top 3 toughest defensive workloads in the league.

He's absolutely the DPOY so far imo. Very little serious competition. No one else has the results he has with generating both blocks and steals, against the absolute toughest competition; don't forget that our schedule thus far has been rougher than sandpaper and he's done this against Kawhi, PG13, De'Aaron Fox, Trae Young, Luka Doncic, KAT, Steph Curry, Desmond Bane, etc.

When defended by Herb as primary defender, the following players have had the following FG%:
- Desmond Bane - 40%
- SGA - 25%
- PG13 - 37.5%
- Steph Curry - 66% (can't win 'em all)
- De'Aaron Fox - 42%
- Dejounte Murray - 33%
- Jordan Clarkson - 20%
- Harrison Barnes - 25%
- Luka Doncic - 0%
- Nikola Jokic - 0%

Now in fairness, a lot of these results thus far come on small sample sizes: Luka, for example, is 0/3 shooting against Herb. Very small sample. But he's defended all of these players for at least double digit possessions according to NBA.com, and we've seen it while watching the games. Dude just matches up against everyone tough and makes their life hell.

Helps him that Dyson Daniels has been on court for a bunch of this, and he's also a fantastic defender.

[Freyfamilyreuni]

It’s kind of funny that CJ is cleared to play an NBA game but not cleared to take a flight.

[donato]

It’s kind of funny that CJ is cleared to play an NBA game but not cleared to take a flight.

It's possibly just an excuse to rest him on a traveling back to back since he's just coming back.

[Freyfamilyreuni]

It's possibly just an excuse to rest him on a traveling back to back since he's just coming back.

Based on what he said in an interview I took it to mean that he wasn't medically cleared to take a flight yet.

[Pelicanidae]

Based on what he said in an interview I took it to mean that he wasn't medically cleared to take a flight yet.

That is the case.

You gotta remember what while a flight isn't taxing on the same way as a game is, air pressure changes that come with extreme elevation and stuff can mess with your body. When CJ initially got his diagnosis I did some reading on pneumothorax and apparently flying before you're fully cleared can cause lethal consequences in some cases.

Presumably CJ got clearance to return to the court - hence being back at practice a while ago - but not clearance to fly until a certain time has passed since clearance. If you're in a game and things get too intense, you can take a break, you can sit for a while, and you're only gonna play maybe 35 minutes total spread across multiple hours. If you get on a plane, you are on the plane until you get where you're going and the air pressure issue keeps working on you the entire time with no possibility of relief.

[superstar7th]

Its weird, i have more hope of us winning this game instead of the next 2 lol

[Pelicanidae]

Larry Nance Jr. (non-COVID illness) has been downgraded to out for tonight's game vs Philadelphia

— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) November 29, 2023

[JJackisangry]

Just find a healthy balance to the offense. I don’t think we did too much wrong against Utah offensively. The problem is you have to have more to your game than bully ball and finesse in front of the line. There needs to be decent spacing and ball movement, side to side and shifting people out of position. What works for us against one team won’t work against every team. I feel we have success with something and get a little happy with it. We fall into that trap. Just diversify the play, make teams work and think.

[6warddude]

well, since nance is out. willie will be force to use his bigs the right way in this game...

[Pelicanidae]

Missed the majority of the first quarter because I was asleep, so I don't know exactly how it looked, but the box score is promising.

Every starter's scored, team's shooting 80%, no fouls by any starters, Zion with 4/4/4 and a steal, CJ hitting 2 threes already, Hawkins still getting a look into the rotation and also getting a 3, winning the rebounding battle, JV actually getting used, Pels up double digits.

Can't really ask for more than that early, can I?

Looking forward to actually getting to see the rest.

[AussieHornet]

maybe go back to sleep it seems to be working for us

[Pelicanidae]

maybe go back to sleep it seems to be working for us

If we start losing, I may just do that.

[donato]

Injury looked bad. Achilles?

[Pelicanidae]

Injury looked bad. Achilles?

Didn't look like there was any contact at all, so definitely seems to be something like that.

[AussieHornet]

who????

[Freyfamilyreuni]

That’s what I thought too. Hope not.

[donato]

who????

Jose

[Freyfamilyreuni]

who????

Jose

[AussieHornet]

ok that sucks but i was really hoping not zion or BI, herb etc.

[Freyfamilyreuni]

Dyson is so disruptive if we can just get his offensive confidence going

[Freyfamilyreuni]

Zion ghosting Hawkins to pass to Dyson…

[AussieHornet]

his floater was looking good for a while then he stopped trying

[Pelicanidae]

CJ coming in, Hawkins to the bench.

Willie Green will not allow more than one shooter on the floor with Zion at a time. It's illegal, possibly.