Wheels up for PHX ✈️☀️ #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/wil7JfiteZ
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 29, 2020
The Pels are on the road again, this time to Phoenix. After a grind-it-out, ugly win against the Spurs at home, hopefully this game will be a little more fun to watch, but who knows?
We are 2-1 after three games this year. Last year, we were 0-3 at this point, so I'll take that, especially given who we've played so far: Raptors on the road, Heat on the road, and Spurs at home are not three of the easiest possible games you could have, and we've done alright.
Heading into tonight's game, there are a few obvious things to be concerned about. Devin Booker is Devin Booker, who can drop 40 at any time, and he's actually had some rough shooting to start the year off so variance always swings around and it would be just our luck for him to up his percentages against us. The requirement, therefore, is to maintain some of the good defense we've actually been playing so far and to not give him the easiest night. While our D has been improved somewhat so far this year, that doesn't mean it's been flawless: defending Booker the way we defended Duncan Robinson vs the Heat would not be a good idea, for example.
CP3 is on the Suns now as well, and while he's been having similarly dismal efficiency issues so far, he's also been averaging 9.7 assists per game and playing some really good defense, so it will be interesting to see how he comes out.
Of course, for us what we want to see is Ingram continuing to show all the good stuff he's been showing, for Ball to play like he did last game again, and for Zion to have a bounce back with regards to efficiency while maintaining his defensive improvements. The good sign on that regard is that the Suns start DeAndre Ayton, who has improved a lot as a defender over the last few years but still has huge struggles with physicality on defense and who tends to shy away from contact as a paint protector - with any luck, he's the perfect target for Zion to push around en route to having an efficient night.
Otherwise, let's just hope for a good game and - fingers crossed - a win.