Tonight in Cleveland!
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 21, 2023
🏀: vs Cavaliers
🕡: 6:30 pm CT
📺: @BallySportsNO
📻: @995WRNO #Pelicans | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/WqSUKQfbIl
After a horrible loss last game, the Pels are on the road again to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland has a 16-12 record too, and their net rating - while worse than ours - isn't actually far off. They're a decent team.
They are, however, struggling with injuries right now. Evan Mobley is Out, Darius Garland is Out, and Donovan Mitchell missed last game with an illness that may still be lingering.
The Pels, however, are not immune; this non-COVID illness has been going around the league (other than Donovan Mitchell, it's caught Gordon Hayward, Killian Hayes, Jae'Sean Tate, Norman Powell, and Amen Thompson, just to name a few), and unfortunately that has included the Pelicans. According to our latest injury report, posted last night, Zion, Herb, and Jonas are all also questionable with this non-COVID illness. We'll see how that pans out and if they play.
Last game rightfully caused a lot of upset. There were problems on the court from players, yes, but there was also a complete deviation from the strategies that have been winning lately (made 22 3s in our last win, only shot 25 in Memphis game, for example) and a lack of effort in getting into those better looks. However, one thing that was good to see was Willie Green speaking to the media yesterday and admitting that he thinks he messed up the lineups towards the end of the game. This is absolutely true, and it's good of him to acknowledge it.
Willie Green is a defensively minded coach working with an offensively minded roster. Now, that can work, if the uses his defensive mindset to create a baseline level of competence on defense that allows the offense to flourish without worrying about turning into Indiana. Unfortunately, this is not what he does most of the time: instead, he stifles the offense considerably in an attempt to create a League First Defense with a roster that isn't equipped to do so with any consistency. This is why Naji Marshall and Dyson Daniels - good players who definitely should be getting minutes, don't get me wrong - are getting minutes ahead of Jordan Hawkins, and it's why Trey Murphy is getting 21 minutes in a game we need shooting, and it's why Trey rarely plays together with Zion despite that being an obvious offensive pairing, and it's why we constantly see single-shooter lineups despite us finally having shooters.
It shouldn't take a genius to work this out, but if last game has given Green the motivation to fix it, then I'll take it. Better late than never.
Let's see how Green adapts going forward and find out if we can pick up another win here.