The Lakers come rolling into town tonight to take on the Pelicans in the hopes of grabbing their second win of the season.  So far, despite a torrent of moderately ineffective field goal attempts from Kobe, the Lakers have executed a team-wide commitment to attacking the basket, earning them a league average offense.  28 free throw attempts per game will do that for you.

Of course, on the flip side, the Lakers rather un-athletic team is giving away a near league-worst number of free throws to other teams.(32 per game)  Combine that with allowing the 24th highest number of three point attempts and the Lakers have the worst defense in the league.  In fact, go back 20 years.  The Lakers defense so far this season is worse than any team during that time.  Now – they probably aren’t actually that awful, but they are pretty bad.

The Pelicans are more likely to take advantage of a lack of defense on the three point line – as their attempts have increased by 32% over last year.  They aren’t, however, likely to take advantage of the free throw line, as they are drawing 5% fewer free throws than their already free-throw allergic offense from last year.(27th in the league.)

Happily, the Pelicans should crush the Lakers on the boards and sport an easy advantage in turnovers, both areas where the Pelicans rank near the top of the league.  If they can stick a few of those easy threes, or if one of the Pelican guards decide free throws are helpful to their cause, the Lakers should provide points in abundance and make this a laugher.

Questions of the game:

• Will the Lakers get the Pelicans ability to draw free throws jump-started?
• Will Tyreke Evans hit better than 22% of his layups against Jordan Hill, Ed Davis and Carlos Boozer?
• Over-under 10 three point attempts for Ryan Anderson.

Enjoy the game!