The Pelicans, now on a 2-game winning streak, are at it again tonight for their 6th back-to-back of the season taking on a divisional rival in the Dallas Mavericks. This is the second meeting this season between the two, with the Mavericks outlasting the Pels 109-104 back in early November. The Pelicans have only beaten one team currently above .500 (San Antonio), a win here to get over .500 against a strong divisional rival and playoff spot contender would be fantastic for the Pelicans and would give a little boost to the team’s playoff hopes.
Anthony Davis is coming off an 18pt 8reb on 6-14 from the field performance and hasn’t had a double-double in 3 games now. Look for Davis to bounce back in an exciting Dirk v Davis matchup, as the first time he put up a 31-15-2-3-2 stat line.
The Mavericks are 3-2 in December and are coming off a loss to fellow divisional foe Memphis. They have only lost two in a row once so far this season as they sit in 7th place in the West with a 16-7 record.
Keys to the game tonight:
- The first meeting between the two teams was a tale of two halves. In the first the Pels gave up 66 on 55.1% shooting, second half 43 on 47.5% shooting. A lot of the damage was done by Chandler Parsons who scored 15 in the first two quarters on 5-8 shooting. The Pelicans will have to avoid another slow start unless they want to be playing from behind against the league leader in Offensive rating (113.9).
- The Mavs are not a good rebounding team (2nd to last in the league in defensive rebounding). Meanwhile Asik, Davis, and Anderson are all good-great offensive rebounders, they need to exploit this match up and grab any and all 2nd chance opportunities they can to keep pace with Dallas’ offense.
- The Bench: Can the new additions keep the Pels in the game? Last match up the Mavericks bench outscored New Orleans’ 36-14. Can Mekel, Cunningham, and crew keep Harris, Wright, and Barea in check?
Flock Up and Find Out who will come out ahead tonight 7(CT)
8 responses to “Game On: Pelicans @ Mavericks”
Brutal schedule coming up over the next ten games or so. To have any hope of .500 record come end of December (which would set up the rest of the season) the Pel’s need this one against a tough team.
Monta Ellis had a disappointing game yesterday in their loss to Memphis as he’s nursing an elbow injury (scored 2pts), I thought he was getting to the rim at will against us in the first game…
I only saw the highlights and the 4th qtr of yesterdays game but hopefully Ryno can find his stroke and go better than 1/9 from the field.
Tough one.
Soooo… Since the Nets are having a fire sale.. My mind started going. I would do a Gordon & Tryeke for Joe Johnson trade in a heartbeat!
Even though JJs contract is insane, it’s not much worse then Gordons. It would allow Jrue to be the full time facilitator and give him a true “shooting” guard. If we could get a 3rd team involved to get a starting caliber sf on the cheap.. Sign me up!
CoReMeGa
The only ways Gordon & Tyreke equal Joe Johnson are ways we don’t want them to: years in the NBA and salary. Why would we trade away injury risk Gordon and his $15M salary for a past his prime, aging, Joe Johnson and his $25M salary? We wouldn’t! And we certainly would lose critical piece Tyreke to do it.
In the 2 most important possessions at the end of the fantastic game we just lost:
– AD completely blows the pick and roll coverage on the Ellis drive as it was patently obvious that Evans was no where in sight to recover
– Anderson blows the 3 to tie the game…another missed 3; 0-2 from 3pt range
Holiday was spectacular!
If Ellis doesn’t pull a Tyreke in the 4th by scoring repeatedly… We win it… Such a disappointing loss
I agree but have a hard time blaming Monty as he knew he would not be able to get Jrue open again for another attempt, and felt his next best alternative was to go to the guy who specializes in that very shot… Hot or not, it’s hard to Imagine wanting to go with Rivers or Babbitt over Anderson any time, but again I tend to agree with you
At this point I would be down for a crazy complicated 4 team trade. I’m keeping Jrue and Asik and obviously AD but everyone else would be on the table!
I could see Denver being interested in a shake up maybe the Rockets jump in to get Ryno. If we had Ryno Tyreke Gordon and Rivers going out and some how managed to get JJ, Plumlee, Wilson Chandler and let’s say Patrick Beverly (and maybe a pick)… I would be all in!
I really like Ryno but we would have to make a very complex trade in order to move Gordon and I think the sacrifice would be worth it.
I agree it’s a little nutty but I think that we need to shake it up. If you look at my other reply I would think that the trade would be more complex but we end up getting a starting 5 that looks like say..
Asik
AD
Wilson Chandler
JJ
Holiday
… And have a more capable def hound like Beverly as back up PG, Ajinca, Plumlee, and Cunningham as our bench I think that we would be a more complete team as a result. I would make the move.
Gordon is dead weight and I know its beating a dead horse but could you imagine that closing 5 and JJ has ice in his veins and could be our closer!
Forgot to do the @504ever & @xman20002000 ?