New Orleans Pelicans at Los Angeles Lakers: Open Thread

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Published: December 7, 2014

Tonight at Staples Center, the 8-10 New Orleans Pelicans take on the 5-15 Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers aren’t an empty 5-15 . . . that’s a representative record. They’d had 4 players start all 20 games (Kobe Bryant, Jeremy Lin, Wesley Johnson, Jordan Hill) with Carlos Boozer missing just a single start. The returned-to-action walking, talking legend Kobe Bryant is leading the team at over 35 minutes per game to boot, and leads surpasses Anthony Davis in scoring (per minute, per possession, and per game). Still, the team posts a worse offense than the Pelicans (108.1 v 107.2) and the worst defense in the NBA (108.9 v 115.4).

Of course, this doesn’t matter tonight.

The Lakers were shellacked Friday by the Celtics. Afterwards, head coach Byron Scott, who led the New Orleans Hornets for years, promised changes. Those changes will start tonight, with Ronnie Price replacing Lin and Ed Davis replacing Boozer. The changes were made, ostensibly, to improve the team’s defense.

The Pelicans have lost 2 straight to superior teams on their current west coast trip (Warriors, Clippers), and this is the second night of a back-to-back for the Pelicans, though the easiest one (on paper) in terms of travel (short flight from Staples to Staples). In each of the prior losses, the Pelicans led after a meaningful number of minutes (into the second against the Warriors, into the third against the Clippers), but the team just could not hold off the teams’ outside shooting (27 of 54 combined on three-point shots). While these teams are the top 2 teams in the NBA in 3P%, the Lakers shoot below average from 3 . . . and 2 . . . and 1.

The Lakers take care of the ball and rebound well offensively. In limited sample size, Boozer and Lin are also worse in their respective areas than their replacements in the starting lineup.

With a rough December schedule, the team needs to win their games that winnable to have a chance to pull out of a nosedive in their softer January schedule.

We know the story with the Pelicans: Davis, guards have to guard, Evans can’t go 2 of 15 or like.

Fellas, you are frustrated and you can take it out on the Lakers. Do so.

You can catch the game locally on Fox Sports New Orleans or 105.3 FM. The game starts at 8:30 CT (UTC -6).

Questions

  • How well will the Pelicans’ guards guard Kobe Bryant?
  • How well can Tyreke do against with the closest thing to no defense he’ll in December? (Who knows what rabbits Philly can pull from their collective hat?)
  • Babbitt?!?!

Links

New Orleans Pelicans Statistics

Los Angeles Lakers Statistics

Forum Blue and Gold Preview

New Orleans Watch

As noted above, Coach Scott spent some time in New Orleans.

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