8th February - New Orleans Pelicans @ Indiana Pacers - 21-31
Back on the road, this time against the Indiana Pacers, hoping to pick up another win. Here's the injury report:
Brandon Ingram (Right Ankle Sprain) is questionable for Saturday’s game vs. the Pacers
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) February 7, 2020
Injury Report: https://t.co/6UckXl3ysO#Pelicans @MorrisBartLLC pic.twitter.com/jUtDCUUzlO
Nothing surprising; we all saw Ingram take that uncomfortable looking knock during the Bulls game and while he returned, he didn't play much in the second half (in fairness, neither did several of the starters). X-Rays came back negative, according to Andrew Lopez, so he doesn't appear to have any long term or significant injury, but I could see them holding him out if there's lingering soreness or something like that.
As for Indiana, Oladipo is listed as out and TJ Warren is questionable, as he didn't play last game.
Pacers are a difficult team to sum up, really. They're 31-21, which tells you a lot; they're not a bad team by any stretch. But they have slowed down as the season has gone on: they were 20-9 at one point, and have gone 11-12 since December 20th. One advantage they have is that they're a good home team: only .500 on the road, the Pacers are 18-8 at home. The plus side is that they lost last night, and this is the second game of a back to back for them.
Basic stats run down: 15th in ORtg, 12th in DRtg, Pacers are top 5 in assists per game but bottom 10 in both rebounds and steals. They only average about 12 turnovers a game, which is among the fewest in the league. They take the fewest 3PAs in the NBA, but they shoot them at the 7th best rate; selective fire. They're 3rd in overall FG% and 8th in FT%, although again, they're 30th in FTAs per game. They're a slow team though, playing at the 6th slowest pace in the NBA, which we should definitely take advantage of.
The guy to watch in my view is Domantas Sabonis. I really liked him as far back as when he was in OKC; he was there while Westbrook was on his quest to force as many triple doubles as possible, and it was clear that this style of play was detrimental to both Oladipo and to Sabonis. Since going to Indiana, Sabonis has really blossomed and shown what he can do on offense; this year he's putting up 18/13/5 on 59%TS, +3rTS. He's a great passer and screener, and is tricky to defend as a result.
Tonight's an important game. This is one that we can win, and as we all know, we need to win if the playoffs are going to stay in reach. We know how many games we have against sub .500 teams, and it's important that we dominate those, but it's also important that we steal a few games against the weaker +.500 teams if we want to get that 8th seed. This is a chance to do that. Let's go and try for the win. #WBD.
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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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