Tonight we, the 4-9 Pelicans, take on the 5-9 Blazers. This game has the cool implication of letting us leapfrog the Blazers in the standings if we win (5-9 being better than 5-10, obviously). It also carries the fact that if we win, we will be 4-4 at home. This is good. You've gotta be a respectable home team, if nothing else, to have any hopes of the postseason, so us getting to .500 at home is a good start.
Let's talk injuries. We've still got 'em. Here's the injury report:
Pelicans injury report - 11/19 vs. POR: pic.twitter.com/NJUEghqo9l
— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) November 18, 2019
So that's Favors, Hart, Miller, Zion all definitely out. Jah is doubtful, and Ball/Ingram/Frank are all questionable. Redick is back.
On the other side, we will be seeing the debut of Blazers Melo, which should be fun especially because of this revelation:
Damian Lillard is OUT tonight(Back spasms)
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) November 19, 2019
Carmelo Anthony is Active
That's right, Lillard is not going to be playing. Just for a fun bit of information, so far this Blazers team is a -18 when Lillard is off the court, so hopefully some of that awfulness transmits to tonight and we can take advantage for a win.
The Blazers are the league's 22nd ranked defense and the 13th ranked offense, so they're not particularly fiery on either end, and with Damian Lillard out, that offensive rating should be difficult for them to live up to. With the removal of Dame and the insertion of Melo, I think it's also plausible that their 28th ranked assist-rate drops even further tonight as well. The Blazers are relatively foul prone, ranked 27th in the NBA, and only shoot 44% from the floor, good for 23rd in the NBA.
This is a winnable game if we go out there and put the pressure on like we did last time out. It's not guaranteed, of course, but it can be done.
Let's go out there and get the win. #WBD