15th December - New Orleans Pelicans VS Orlando Magic - 6-20

[Pelicanidae]

Here we go again, this time VS the 11-14 Orlando Magic. We're at home again, not that that seems to have made much difference as of late. Here's the injury report:

https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/on...-orlando-magic

Only two players appeared on the New Orleans Pelicans Injury Report on Saturday ahead of Sunday's home game vs. the Orlando Magic. Zion Williamson (knee) and Darius Miller (Achilles) remain listed as out while the rest of the roster is available for Coach Alvin Gentry.

So Favors should be good to go still, as he was last game. No idea on if he'll be available for more than 15 minutes this time around, though.

The Magic have lost 3 straight, so in a way, I suppose someone's loss streak has to be broken. Feels strange to compare 3 losses in a row to what we've had, but that's where it is. In terms of injuries, they're missing Aminu (meniscus tear) and Vucevic is day-to-day, so he may play but maybe not.

Orlando are 25th in offensive rating, so worse than us, but 12th in defensive rating, which is far better than us. They are, however, 29th in pace: we should be able to run them around a little, since they're so slow. They're 18th in rebounds, 23rd in assists, 11th in steals, and 2nd in blocks. They don't turn the ball over (4th best turnover rate in the NBA) and they are the 2nd least foul-prone team in the NBA, so our free throw woes don't look to be turned around tonight.

The reason their offense is so dreadful is simple: guys don't score. They're 28th in FG%, and 27th in 3pt%, and while they're better at making FTs (12th) they are only 22nd in FTAs.

Players to be aware of tonight include Jonathan Isaac, a third year player who is 22 years old and legitimately in the running for DPOY. He's been incredible on that end. Tall, lengthy, he's averaging 2.7 blocks per game and 1.2 steals: that translates, on his team, to an 8% BLK rate and a 1.9% steal rate. The list of other players averaging at least these percentages over at least 500 minutes played this year is: nobody. He's the only one. This explains why Isaac is also 10th in the NBA in D-PIPM, and 16th in DRPM. Just great stuff from him.

Try for a win, at least?

[Fedupfan]

Vucevic has already been ruled out. So, No Vucevic and Aminu for them. In other words, they are in the same position the Pels were. Missing the front court. If Pels lose, what can Alvin say? Not much left in the excuse bag.

[Pelicanidae]

Vucevic has already been ruled out. So, No Vucevic and Aminu for them. In other words, they are in the same position the Pels were. Missing the front court. If Pels lose, what can Alvin say? Not much left in the excuse bag.

I mean, they still have Mo Bamba, Khem Birch, and Aaron Gordon who play PF or C, which is more than we've had at times.

They have the reverse issue of us. We have tons and tons of guards but we're thin for bigs. They have an unlimited supply of bigs and are thin with guards.

[Taker597]

Streak ends today. Magic's losing streak to be exact

[msusousaphone]

Nah. We'll win 4 out of the next 5.

[Fedupfan]

Streak ends today. Magic's losing streak to be exact

Lol

[Pelicanidae]

Vucevic has already been ruled out. So, No Vucevic and Aminu for them. In other words, they are in the same position the Pels were. Missing the front court. If Pels lose, what can Alvin say? Not much left in the excuse bag.

Orlando’s @NikolaVucevic is active and available to play at New Orleans today, team says.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 15, 2019

[JJackisangry]

Rooting for the suck at this point. I’ll take a win, but I’ll LOL at whatever spectacular way we manage to lose this time. At home. Embrace the Panzer

[msusousaphone]

Anyone want to make a healthy wager on playoffs? I mean. I'm broke. So I'm talking more like fun stuff. If the Pels make the playoffs, I get to write your sig for the next season, if they don't, you get to do my sig type stuff.

Calling it. The turn around starts here.

[Pelicanidae]

We play a sport called ''basketball'' tonight. Not sure how the team will handle it, they've got no experience, but hopefully they can pick it up as they go along.

[Pelicanidae]

Kenny with the early block

[Pelicanidae]

Man, watching the way Favors moves with purpose and efficiency is such a breath of fresh air.

Hayes has all the potential but he's so young and inexperienced that he's not there yet.
Okafor just doesn't have any of it.

Favors is good.

[Pelicanidae]

I remember worrying about out FT% before the season, and I said that it would cost us close games because we'll lose a bunch of easy points throughout games and struggle at closing.

Got told not to worry at all, it'd be fine, we're not that bad, yadda yadda.

Welp

[Pelicanidae]

Don't like seeing Jrue (or anyone really but Jrue this time) take off jumping *before* they even really know what pass they're going to make. Forcing awkward decisions without full body control.

[AusPel]

Gordon can't handle Kenny

[Pelicanidae]

Second blocked jumper of the game by Kenrich.

Underrated aspect of Favors' defense is his timing. He's much more viable at the bigs-up defense that the team runs than Hayes or Okafor, because he can sink back into the lane and still know when to drift up to the perimeter. We moved towards a more traditional strategy with Hayes starting because he doesn't have that experience yet.

[Pelicanidae]

Hayes with the slam.

He's so good at rolling. If you look for him, he will do it.

[Pelicanidae]

Screen assist

[Pelicanidae]

I hate when Ingram breaks down into an iso. Sometimes he makes the shot, sometimes he doesn't, but it just ends up with everyone else stood around watching him struggle to manufacture a shot.

It's even worse when someone like Isaac is defending him and he just cannot do anything with that matchup.

[Pelicanidae]

That shot didn't go, but the pass from Jax on the short roll was awesome and Jrue's quick touch pass to the corner off it was magic.

[Pelicanidae]

Good steal from Ingram, and good offensive board after that too. Nice little sequence.

[Pelicanidae]

Lonzo made a skip pass.

Surprising.

[Pelicanidae]

Okay, that's the kind of three that's okay for Lonzo.

Feet set, plenty of space, right on the line, had time to take a rhythm dribble. That's fine.

[AusPel]

Yep

[HoustonPelicans]

Jaxon's ability to jump off 1 foot is unprecedented for a big man. AD cant even jump that high off 1 foot.