Josh Hart questionable, Garrett Temple doubtful for Sacramento game
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) October 28, 2021
Injury Report: https://t.co/9P605jXHTw#Pelicans | @MorrisBartLLC
Coming off a close and frustrating loss, we move on to a game against the 2-2 Kings. This is one of the ones we really need to get. Very few people see the Kings as a playoff team this year, let alone a top tier seed, so losing the games against them the way that we might against Philly or Atlanta is not nearly so excusable. It's a good thing that we've been so competitive in a lot of these games without Zion, but the reality is that while that may be good it's also ultimately meaningless: a 1 point loss can ruin your playoff chances as much as a 40 point loss, and we need to start picking up a few wins.
Hopefully, the Kings are the team to give us that chance. Following up last year, where they had one of the worst defenses in NBA history, they're a bottom 4 defense again so far this year and a lot of the reasons why are obvious. They're the 11th worse rebounding team in the NBA, are bottom 13 in both steals and blocks, opponents get a lot of shots up against them and generally hit them at a high rate, and the Kings also give up a lot of FTs.
Harrison Barnes is having a career year thus far, Buddy Hield is posting yet another historically ridiculous shooting season (44.2% from 3 on 18.6 attempts per 100 thus far, which is just stupid), and while he's been struggling thus far with his efficiency, DeAaron Fox is one of those guys that could come back and just kill you at any time.
They certainly have some good players, we all know that, and while they're 2-2 and not great, we're 1-4 and also struggling, so it's not like we can afford to just take a win for granted. But the possibility exists, and that's something you have to really grasp at when you're in our position. Let's try and get a W.