January 23rd - New Orleans Pelicans @ Minnesota Timberwolves - 5-9

[Pelicanidae]

Okay, so, another loss. It happens, especially against good teams, but the losing streak is getting a bit out of hand at this point and the record isn't looking very good either. So, of course, it's about time that we play a team that we should be able to beat.

Luckily the Minnesota Timberwolves are 3-11, played yesterday so it's a back to back for them, and they are undeniably one of the three worst teams in basketball right now.

The Wolves are, as of the time of me checking this to write this post, 27th in both defensive and offensive rating. They are 7th in the league in blocks but otherwise don't make the top 12 in any other category. They're 26th in the league in FG%, 25th in 3pt%, and 19th in FT%: they cannot score if you make it hard on them. They're also in the bottom half of the league for TOs and fouls, so that's an issue for them as well.

Their best player is KAT, and he's been out for a while now. At this point, their second best player is Malik Beasley, which is not exactly the recipe for a really strong team.

There is one, singular and solitary, player in their regular lineup with a positive BPM right now. It's DAR, and he's only got a +0.6.

They suck. No excuses tonight. This needs to be a win. Without too much difficulty, you can understand the other losses even if they suck: they're against good teams, we're on the road, we're playing every other day so no practices, yadda yadda. Nobody likes it but it makes sense. None of these reasons really justify a loss here. Losing to the Wolves at this point would be a disgrace.

So time to pick up a win: it would only be our 2nd win in the last 3 weeks (since January 2nd, we have won 1 game) so we need this right now.

Make it happen.

[DroopyDawg]

So time to pick up a win: it would only be our 2nd win in the last 3 weeks (since January 2nd, we have won 1 game) so we need this right now.

Wow.

But this is the kind of game that scares me as a Pels fan. It seems as though teams have a much wider basket when they play the pels. They set new franchise records in shooting against us and I could never understand why... still don't. They shoot 65% from 3 against us, then the next game they play they'll come back down to earth and shoot 25%.

Its just crazy.

[Pelicanidae]

Wow.

But this is the kind of game that scares me as a Pels fan. It seems as though teams have a much wider basket when they play the pels. They set new franchise records in shooting against us and I could never understand why... still don't. They shoot 65% from 3 against us, then the next game they play they'll come back down to earth and shoot 25%.

Its just crazy.

The thing about 3pt defense is that it's pretty much entirely variance. They're done studies on this, Seth Partnow (ex-analytics for the Bucks) talks about it a lot: it doesn't seem to matter whether a shooter is left open, or wide open, or lightly contested. The results end up the same. Good 3pt defense isn't found in causing good players to miss more, really, it's found in denying shots entirely to the good players - the minute that shot's going up the defender has basically nothing to do with it.

So part of it is bad luck, sure, but part of it is entirely that ''the minute the shot's going up'' part: we just, historically, do not prevent good shooters from taking shots. It's always been our problem. This year the problem is in the late closeouts and the overhelp that we see as a pandemic across the entire team. Everyone gets the shots they want because we're so late on covering them, so nothing gets denied on the perimeter. It sucks. The improvement has to come, or else yeah, there's an extent to which it doesn't matter who we play.

The plus side is that the Wolves regularly play 4+ players a game who shoot under 31% from 3, so even if they get a bevy of wide open shots from those guys it really doesn't hurt too much. All we need to do is ensure coverage on D'Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley: those are the only 2 Wolves who play real minutes that shoot well. KAT as well, but he's out so it doesn't matter.

[luckyman]

Last 2 games on drives:

Eric Bledsoe - 23 drives, 4-11 FG, 1-2 FT, 9 points, 0 AST, 1 TO, 52 minutes
NAW - 19 drives, 3-7 FG, 1-2 FT, 8 points, 1 AST, 3 TO, 49 minutes
Lonzo - 7 drives, 2-5 FG, 0-0 FT, 4 points, 1 AST, 0 TO, 50 minutes
Kira - 3 drives, 1-3 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 points, 0 AST, 0 TO, 6 minutes

In other words, in the last 2 games played, it took this many minutes (on average) on the floor before each player attempts to drive the ball...
Eric - 2:16
NAW - 2:35
Lonzo - 7:09
Kira - 2.00**

One of those things are not like the others. But we all knew that.

[Pelicanidae]

"That's a lot of girth," a reporter who covers the Timberwolves says of the Zion-Steven Adams frontcourt.

— Christian Clark (@cclark3000) January 23, 2021

...

. . .

. . . . .

...nice

[Pelicanidae]

�� Minneapolis, MN pic.twitter.com/n8dhRHhfJt

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 23, 2021

[Taker597]

I like AD a lot.

[JJackisangry]

?Some of these turnovers are so uncharacteristic of veterans? we can say that about every Pelicans ?veteran? ever

[Taker597]

Hayes and Ingram played that perfectly.

[Taker597]

Hi don't understand why Ingram even needed to help with that... Stay on your guy

[Taker597]

Like... Some of these overhelps are baffling.

[Taker597]

We need start stat talling on Opp making shots made on overhelp misdirection.

[Nichols]

Like... Some of these overhelps are baffling.

I don't like it either.. I think it's just how teams play defense now. If you don't position yourself to help then you're called out for not helping.. I think guys sag too far off perimeter shooters though. But that's just my opinion.

[Pelicanidae]

Really surprised at some of these Zion misses.

[Taker597]

I don't like it either.. I think it's just how teams play defense now. If you don't position yourself to help then you're called out for not helping.. I think guys sag too far off perimeter shooters though. But that's just my opinion.

Like just let dudes beat you in the paint, but we let guys get comfy in high pct spots on the floor. So, It doesn't matter if we don't get physical off ball.

[Funcrusher]

Really surprised at some of these Zion misses.

Can't make em all

[Funcrusher]

JJ has to get better at the one thing he's good at...

[Taker597]

Can't make em all

Law of Averages. Always due for an average night.

[DaPelFromHell]

I knew it. Anthony Edwards has been struggling big time. Dude dropped him in my fantasy league and I was like oh I’ll take him cause he’s bound to go against the Pelicans. The team you play to get out of a funk!!

[Pelicanidae]

I'm getting incredibly tired of watching Zion get fouled to no calls.

[Pelicanidae]

Law of Averages. Always due for an average night.

Yeah, and he's 3/7 from the floor so it's not like he's been horrifically inefficient or anything early, just a few of them you'd usually expect to go in not quite falling.

Edit: 4/8

[Taker597]

I'm getting incredibly tired of watching Zion get fouled to no calls.

I was tired of that like 5 games ago when NBA officials got the memo.

[JJackisangry]

I hope there is a trade in the works if we are continuing to deny Kira minutes

[Taker597]

I hope their is a trade in the works if we are continuing to deny Kira minutes

We may have to give up assests to move Bledsoe and Ball.

[PelicanNation]

If jj cant hit shots he is useless

a major liability...he takes dumb shots early in the shot clock and cant guard anybody