Back home at the SKC against the Spurs tonight ⚜
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) April 24, 2021
🏀 vs. San Antonio
🕖 7 p.m. CT
📺 @BallySportsNO
📻 100.3 FM @ESPNRadioNOLA @SmoothieKing | #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/RAJslI2axe
Six games under .500 after a blowout win last game, and we take on the Spurs at home.
San Antonio are 29-29 as we speak and are currently sat in the 10th seed, just edging their way into the play-ins ahead of us. They are the league's 10th rated defense and 19th offense, and they have won 3 of their last 4; wins over Indiana, Phoenix, and Detroit with their single loss against Miami.
Derozan, Rudy Gay, and Trey Lyles are all listed as questionable on the BasketballRef injury report.
Spurs are one of those teams who are not top 5 in anything (except turnovers per game), but also aren't bottom 5 in anything; 17th in rebounds, 15th in assists, 21st in points, 20th in both FG% and 3P%. They kind of just hover around the middle of the league in everything, and that's fitting for a team that's somehow at exactly .500 58 games in.
By contrast our defense has at least nominally improved; we're now the 27th ranked defense instead of the 28th, and our offense has sunk down from 7th to 9th to go along with that. We are 4-4 over our last 8 but only 1-4 over our last 5.
Is this game one we can compete in? Absolutely, if we play our best ball. Will we play our best ball? This team has given me no reason to expect that. Let's see what happens.