April 12th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Sacramento Kings - 24-29

[Chris]

Bull********. The shooter jumped into him!

This is why I'm confused. It looked like he kicked his feet out to initiate the contact.

[Stalwart385]

We escape with the win, that's 3 in a row - matches the Pels longest win streak of the year.

I'm seeing 4 in a row in early February. Never had more than 2 in a row other than that though.

[Pelicanidae]

As a side note, we still have to play the Warriors 3 times this season.

After seeing what Lillard and Fox have done when guarded by our guards, I am just waiting for Curry to average like 45 across those three games.

[Pelicanidae]

I'm seeing 4 in a row in early February.

Could be! I was just going off what someone else said in the thread, I didn't check it myself.

[As I See It]

On another note who had this stat line tonight?

4/2/2; (1-7; 1-3; 1-1).

(Hint: It should be very familiar to Pelicans Fans)

[luckyman]

Since nobody will bother doing these little factoids for BI, I guess I have to take a stab.

BI has never gone more than 3 consecutive games shooting below 45%. Paul George just had a 6 game stretch <45%. Earlier this year Jayson Tatum 8 straight. Lillard 4 straight. Jamal Murray 4 straight. Khris Middleton, the gold standard of an efficient shooter, just had a 6 - 27 game a few nights ago.

Was almost guaranteed BI would turn in a good shooting night tonight.

[BigChris504]

Denver looks punch drunk, low energy/effort all around and Chef Curry is just braising them right now on the offensive end, 48 going into the 4th...... Steph is just an incredible talent to watch

[Taker597]

Point Zion got 7 30 point games this month**

Avging 31.3 points in April.**

[Taker597]

That's quite a trick considering we haven't had but five games this month (Though he's got +30 in four of them)

Dyscalculia is my eternal struggle.

I thought the months where separated by boxes... But it's just random boxes. Still the last month of games.

[luckyman]

This thread is quiet wonder why??

Ok in other news, looks like Jamal Murray might be out for a while. That doesn't look good at all.

[Taker597]

This thread is quiet wonder why??

Ok in other news, looks like Jamal Murray might be out for a while. That doesn't look good at all.

Saw the video. His knee buckle with his plant. It looked like he probably torn his PCL and ACL. Possibly blown his MCL as well.

Pro-Tip: When ever you feel your knee about to buckle. Immediately fall to the ground. It'll save your knee and come out with a mild sprain.

[13 - 3]

How about some entertainment to celebrate the win. This was back when the WWE was good

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5SidWPrO5-w

[DaFranchise80]

It was an ugly win but I’ll take it on the 2nd night of a back to back.

[Taker597]

Just pathetic stuff. This has got to be like what, the 20th time a pg has dropped 30+ on us? It's definitely not the first time Fox himself has done it.

43 points... And missed like 7 FTs. Wack.

[PolishFan]

We were bad they were worse

[JJackisangry]

We were bad they were worse

Yeah I can take that. The good signs for me were that we really showed up in that 1st half and gave ourselves the right cushion to see this one through. We have got to learn to be more consistent throughout a game though. The effort was absolutely there. We were just abominable decision makers in the 2nd half and did not handle Sacramento?s intensity very well at all. It?s times like this we need to be mentally sharper. Stan also has to a better job too of getting our guys prepared for situations like that.

[sterlr]

Yeah I can take that. The good signs for me were that we really showed up in that 1st half and gave ourselves the right cushion to see this one through. We have got to learn to be more consistent throughout a game though. The effort was absolutely there. We were just abominable decision makers in the 2nd half and did not handle Sacramento?s intensity very well at all. It?s times like this we need to be mentally sharper. Stan also has to a better job too of getting our guys prepared for situations like that.

The team looked drained after the 1st half...accounts for decision making in the second half. I'd like SVG to sub in and out more often on second night games of back-2-backs. I saw several times where guys just watched the Kings shoot from the 3 line without a contest even though they were just a couple of feet away. Even the rebounding was bad in the 2nd half.

[PolishFan]

Yeah I can take that. The good signs for me were that we really showed up in that 1st half and gave ourselves the right cushion to see this one through. We have got to learn to be more consistent throughout a game though. The effort was absolutely there. We were just abominable decision makers in the 2nd half and did not handle Sacramento?s intensity very well at all. It?s times like this we need to be mentally sharper. Stan also has to a better job too of getting our guys prepared for situations like that.

Exactly. I am a SVG apologist and I credit him for the development but he has to do a better job at half times as he seems to be often outcoached in the third quarter.

[Freyfamilyreuni]

From @ESPNStatsInfo: De'Aaron Fox joins Kobe Bryant (2005-06) and Damian Lillard (2020-21) as the only players to score 35+ three different times against the Pelicans in a single season.

? Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) April 13, 2021

Both Lillard and Fox have dropped 35 on us this season three times each

Yea, I think Steph Curry may join that club this year.

[Pelicanidae]

43 points... And missed like 7 FTs. Wack.

Guards against us this season have dropped:

- Malcolm Brogdon: 27/7/11 (44.4% from 3), 0 turnovers
- DeAaron Fox: 43/4/13 on 63%FG, only 2 turnovers and 4 steals
- Donovan Mitchell: 28/7/4 on 60/57/100 splits
- Donovan Mitchell: 36/7/5 on 58/75/100 splits
- Bradley Beal: 47/4/6 on 46/44/100 splits (4 steals also)
- DeAaron Fox: 38/4/12
- Zach LaVine: 46/7/4 on 68/64/100 splits
- Coby White: 30/2/7 on 50/47/100 splits
- Luka Doncic: 46/8/12 on 57/63/78 splits, only 3 turnovers
- Damian Lillard: 43/4/16 on 50/44/100 splits, only 4 turnovers
- CP3: 15/4/19 on 55/60 splits, only 2 turnovers
- DeMar DeRozan: 32/1/11 on 61% shooting, 1 turnover
- Zach LaVine: 36/2/8 on 63/50/100 splits
- Damian Lillard: 50/6/10 on 65/46/100 splits
- Damian Lillard: 36/6 on 55/40/100 splits
- Jamal Murray: 23/3/11 on 55/33/100 splits, only 2 turnovers
- Tim Hardaway Jr: 30/5/3 on 58/50/75 splits
- Trae Young: 30/1/12 on 48/86/67 splits, only 3 turnovers
- DeAaron Fox: 43/6/6 on 50/39/53 splits

It's just ridiculous. It seems like once a week at least some guard will come into a game and have a career night against us. Huge assist rates, huge scoring numbers, low turnovers fairly often, super efficient shooting. Guards must wake up and see they're playing the Pels tonight and just laugh themselves stupid.

Of course, we've had forwards have a big games against us too - Lebron James had 28/9/11 against us, and both Kawhi + PG13 scored 27+ in the same game against us back at the start of the year, but those aren't anything like as frequent - they happen, we have defensive issues all around, but it's clear that the urgent, gaping wound in our defense is at the guard spots. We cannot contain a single ballhandler. If someone wants to make a play on the ball, they will make a play on the ball and nothing any of our major guard-minutes-getters have done has stopped it, and in some cases (Bledsoe for most of the year) they haven't even looked like they want to stop it anyway.

The entire team needs to improve defensively, I'm not letting Ingram or Zion off here, everyone knows the problems I have with Ingram's defense and I've said about 50 times at this point that Zion is a solid negative on defense who needs to improve a lot but neither of those guys is tasked with guarding Bradley Beal, Zach LaVine, or Damian Lillard all game long when they consistently do this to us. This is not a one time thing. It should be a matter of disgrace in the locker room that this is how it's worked out. Bledsoe got All-D nominations for Christs' sake, and while he's missed a lot of games recently Lonzo does not escape blame for this either, many of these points came with him on the ballhandler.