December 1st - New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs - 10-9

[Pelicanidae]

Back for more at the SKC!

🏀: vs San Antonio Spurs
🕖: 7:00 pm CT
📺: @BallySportsNO
📻: @995WRNO#Pelicans | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/UyHs7mnVam

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 1, 2023

The Pelicans return again tonight, this time against the 3-15 Spurs.

So far this season, the Spurs have not been good at all. 3-15 is not quite the worst record in the league but they do have the worst net rating in the NBA, composed of a bottom 3 offense and defense and, while they can't quite match Detroit for zero wins in November, the Spurs haven't won since November 2nd. On top of that, their one major shining light in the form of Victor Wembanyama may not even be playing tonight. We have yet to get confirmation on that, but Pop said to media yesterday that it was uncertain.

Therefore, this is a must-win game. At home, against a miserable team that loses to nearly everyone, with Zion, BI, CJ, and JV healthy, and potentially no Wemby on the other side.

And not only are Zion, BI, CJ, JV, and Herb healthy, but tonight is also a big return for us this season: Trey Murphy should be back in the lineup. He tweeted as much yesterday and his injury report status has been continuously moving towards playing recently, so we can expect to see that man on the floor. While none of you have forgotten, Trey averaged 15ppg last year on 48/40/90 splits, and ended the year on a 20 game run where he averaged over 20ppg on 50/45/91 splits, while taking 9 3PA a game. If he can come back resembling himself from last year, shooting 6+ threes a night on 40%, we're going to be in a very good place even if it takes him a few games to get back up to speed on the rest of his game.

An interesting question, however, will be how much people play. Tonight is the first game of a back to back, tomorrow they're in Chicago, and then we're @ Sacramento on the 4th, so my expectation would be that everyone plays tonight and then a lot of guys sit against Chicago - not only is it the second game of a back to back, so Zion's likely to rest, but we already know CJ won't be travelling with the team due to health restrictions, and we'll want to have everyone rested for the 4th because it's a tournament game. So my expectation is that everyone plays today and against SAC on the 4th, but the Chicago game gets used to just rest people. Just my speculation.

Going into this game I'm excited. It's a chance to keep building on a little bit of momentum. People may recall that I've been talking a lot about December, and this is why: December is the month for us, as far as I'm concerned. Basically everyone is healthy now, at least in the top 6 or 7 players, and we're about to spend a month playing mostly bad teams, often at home, and Spurs/Bulls is our only back to back scheduled this month. We have to win games now. There's no way around it. Of the 13 games currently scheduled, we need to go at least 8-5 imo, preferably 9-4 in order for it to set us up well for the season ahead.

So let's see what a fully healthy Pelicans squad can do to the worst team in the West.

[Pelicanidae]

"There's probably maybe one other duo that can probably shoot better than me and Hawk and I'll still have to have an argument with that."

Trey Murphy III on playing with Pelicans rookie Jordan Hawkins for the first time tonight.

(via @lifeseenbylala)pic.twitter.com/YMBMbZJlUf

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 1, 2023

[Pelicanidae]

What I like so much about Hawk and Trey as a shooting duo is that their skillsets are actually quite different.

Hawkins is shorter, probably worse in terms of percentages for a while but that's largely because most of his shots come off movements and relocation. Isn't going to get to the rim that often, but rebounds well for his height and is the kind of shooter who exhausts defenders because you have to chase him.

Trey is taller, the better shooter in terms of raw numbers, but a lot of his game comes from fairly simple catch and shoot options - the difference with Trey is that he can and will catch and shoot from 30 feet and it doesn't bother him even slightly. Dude will take a shot from the logo and it barely impacts his shooting form. Defenders don't have to chase him as much but they have to play him far closer because he will drive and dunk it on you, and no amount of distance takes him out of the play.

Just two varieties of insane shooter, and they play differently enough that you can have them both on court at once.

[Mrakar]

I think even Pelicans cant lose this game. Hope they dont prove me wrong.

[P_B_&_G]

What I like so much about Hawk and Trey as a shooting duo is that their skillsets are actually quite different.

Hawkins is shorter, probably worse in terms of percentages for a while but that's largely because most of his shots come off movements and relocation. Isn't going to get to the rim that often, but rebounds well for his height and is the kind of shooter who exhausts defenders because you have to chase him.

Trey is taller, the better shooter in terms of raw numbers, but a lot of his game comes from fairly simple catch and shoot options - the difference with Trey is that he can and will catch and shoot from 30 feet and it doesn't bother him even slightly. Dude will take a shot from the logo and it barely impacts his shooting form. Defenders don't have to chase him as much but they have to play him far closer because he will drive and dunk it on you, and no amount of distance takes him out of the play.

Just two varieties of insane shooter, and they play differently enough that you can have them both on court at once.

I'm really looking forward to the Zion, CJ, Hawk, TM3, and Val lineup. Plus when you sub in Herb or BI for Val. Just cause it will be super fun.

[donato]

Any word on Matt Ryan?

[13 - 3]

Wembanyama (potential chest contusion) is out tonight.

He knows how Zion looks at thin French rim protectors. https://t.co/gc0qGWJh1u

— David Fisher (@Fish_TBW) December 1, 2023

[13 - 3]

Any word on Matt Ryan?

Which one?

[donato]

Should they sit Zion out tonight and save him for Chicago?

[Pelicanidae]

Should they sit Zion out tonight and save him for Chicago?

This is a home game, Chicago isn't, and either way we're missing CJ in Chicago. Might as well punt Chicago and give the home fans a fully healthy lineup for once in their lives tonight.

[As I See It]

Should they sit Zion out tonight and save him for Chicago?

It's a crying shame that this HAS to be a question, but here we are.

[6warddude]

I didnt know the spurs were 3-15.....im go sit this game out because i really wanted to see zion body Wembanyama tonight and put him on a poster but victor robbed me of that tonight lol.

i hope we dont play dont to them tonight and have the spurs pull a Utah...

go pels..

[As I See It]

For all you "Hawksters"........

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba...ea8aa4ab&ei=16

[dvdman]

It's a crying shame that this HAS to be a question, but here we are.

Exactly....we are talkingf about 23 year old YOUNG man and not a 35 year veteran. My gosh the NBA has gotten ridiculous.
Zion issues have been and continue to be his weight and that's the only reason he doesn't play back to backs.

[P_B_&_G]

For all you "Hawksters"........

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba...ea8aa4ab&ei=16

Micheal Redd, that's a good comparison actually.

[Pelicanidae]

Exactly....we are talkingf about 23 year old YOUNG man and not a 35 year veteran. My gosh the NBA has gotten ridiculous.
Zion issues have been and continue to be his weight and that's the only reason he doesn't play back to backs.

We're over a month into the season, it's happened several times, I'd have thought we'd all accepted that - justified or not - they're going to sit Zion on the second night of back to backs by now. Not sure how long it's going to take people to stop getting up in arms over it whenever it happens, but apparently 6 weeks isn't long enough.

[13 - 3]

Remember no booing tonight. Be respectful for Pop.

[P_B_&_G]

We're over a month into the season, it's happened several times, I'd have thought we'd all accepted that - justified or not - they're going to sit Zion on the second night of back to backs by now. Not sure how long it's going to take people to stop getting up in arms over it whenever it happens, but apparently 6 weeks isn't long enough.

If he's still playing in April and June next year nobody will care if he missed a few games for rest. I really don't get why it's such a big deal.

[Pelicanidae]

If he's still playing in April and June next year nobody will care if he missed a few games for rest. I really don't get why it's such a big deal.

Exactly. It may or may not work to help prevent injury, but given that we only have 13 b2bs in this season, if him sitting them means he plays 60+ games and is healthy for the postseason then who cares?

If it works and he's playing with us into the post-season, nobody will care. If it doesn't and he gets injured anyway, then we've got bigger issues than the games missed due to rest.

[Pelifan]

With how thin the pels are in the frontcourt and how deep they are everywhere else, I'm hoping to see some Herb at center lineups. Zion at center should be dead. Just let me see 5 minutes of CJ, Hawk, Trey , Z, Herb.

[Pelicanidae]

Green says that Trey will be on ''limited minutes'' but that he'll ''get a good run in''

So like, 20 minutes maybe?

[Pelicanidae]

Willie Green said he expects Zion Williamson to play tomorrow on the second night of a back-to-back in Chicago. Said that could change though.

— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) December 1, 2023

Kind of a surprise, I was thinking they might let him play in b2bs towards the end of the season but I wasn't expecting it this early. I was thinking post all-star break.

[As I See It]

Willie Green said he expects Zion Williamson to play tomorrow on the second night of a back-to-back in Chicago. Said that could change though.

— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) December 1, 2023

Kind of a surprise, I was thinking they might let him play in b2bs towards the end of the season but I wasn't expecting it this early. I was thinking post all-star break.

So maybe questioning his availability is justified, no?

[donato]

Hopefully we get up big early and he only needs to play around 20 minutes then can also play tomorrow.

[Pelicanidae]

Good to see Trey back. A couple of misses from deep so far but he'll get his eye in - the coast to coast was nice.

Jonas been good to start things.

We need to really hone in on that rolling big, we're kinda just letting Bassey get wherever he wants early.