The New Orleans Pelicans tip against the Sacramento Kings tonight at 9:00 CT, and the game is in Sacramento. The game is on 105.3 FM, Fox Sports New Orleans, and NBA TV.
The Kings are 6-4 while the Pelicans are 5-4. The Pelicans are clearly coming off a horrendous loss in Portland following a total breakdown and a 34-13 fourth quarter last night. The Kings’ last game was a win against the Spurs in Sacramento.
Neither team is battling long-term injury, but Asik may sit again with a sore back (game time decision). Meanwhile, DeMarcus Cousins is playing with high usage and at a high level. The Kings are quite the rebounding team, so missing Asik could really hurt tonight.
We’ll update this post with any news, relevant articles, or great comments, of course, particularly Asik’s status.
My questions to start the chit-chat:
- How much time will Davis get guarding Cousins, and how will he do?
- How will Jimmer Fredette do against the team that drafted him and let him go?
- What is up with Eric Gordon?
Keep a look out for the following former New Orleans players: Carl Landry, Darren Collison, and Omri Casspi (sort of).
Update: Asik is OUT for the game tonight.
12 responses to “New Orleans Pelicans @ Sacramento Kings: Open Thread”
Omer Asik will be out for the second night in a row for the Pelicans. This makes dealing with Cousins physically a much more difficult task for the Pels. Some questions I have for this matchup:
How will they matchup with both Cousins and Gay physically? Both seem to have favorable match-ups against N.O. tonight.
Will we see a complete game from either team? Last night we saw the Pels play about 2/3 – 3/4 ‘s of a great game, will they be able to on the second night of a back to back? The Kings have blown huge leads in their last few games as well, I have a feeling this game will be all about who can play consistent offense down the stretch.
With Asik out, will the Pels be able to stay out of foul trouble? The kings are leading the nba at 35 FT attempts a game, having to play Ajinca will certainly not help that.
Look for Tyreke to have a better night. His finishing/efficiency has been pretty poor for his standards to start the season, but against a familiar team I think he breaks out a little bit tonight.
After an abysmal start to the season, Eric Gordon has gone 8-10 from the field (4-4 from 3) for 22 points in his last two games combined. The Pelicans still need more raw production from the wayward guard, but hopefully he finally found some kind of shooting touch and can continue to improve tonight.
Tip off is just a few minutes away in Sac Town, a win would move the Pels to 6-4 and drop the Kings to 6-5, and move the Pelicans back into a playoff seed (not that it matters as this is the tenth game of the season, but holding a spot in the playoffs at any point in the season is a nice site to see).
Is Jimmer allowed off the bench?
1) more times than the zero we would prefer; too much muscle but a few wins for AD
2) since its a back to back we may see a little but I don’t think Rivers played much last night so hard to say. My guess is no impact
3) Gordon appears to be finding his touch again…if he gets extended time with Evans and Holiday resting a little more, he may get his season high
This would be a big win with Asik out, but my gut tells me an L. We’ll need to win in Denver if we have any hope of getting a road split which I think should always be our goal this season.
GO PELS!
Oh boy…shots banked in from the top and dropping in after just being thrown up from underneath…bad foreshadowing?
PatrickAWorth
Possibly, but it seems when he is allowed to get off the bench, he is only allowed to stand in the corner and be a decoy. TE and AR purposefully and self-servingly ignore him, and no plays ever seem to to run for him, even though his overall shooting % is better than any guard on the team, and he has a better 3 pt % than almost anyone in the whole NBA. And please don’t blather about the last few games – for anyone with any reasonable deductive skills, it’s a very small sample size in comparison to his last entire season stats.
Even though his “poor D” mantra is way overplayed, you’d think that if the coach is willing to put him in there and willing to “tolerate his poor D” for a few minutes, you’d at least use him on the offensive end for his well-documented and statistically proven strengths while he in there “messing up the defensive stats.” How many more 4th quarter leads is this coach going to squander with TE and JH completely loosing their legs from playing too many minutes, and then going 0 for 15 in the last quarter. No amount of “D” makes up for that, no matter how the coach sees it – he’s daft for not using all of his players for their strengths, and stubbornly setting up the team for failure What exactly did Doc Rivers say to him after the pre-season – I’d like to know. He seems like just another coach bent on making Jimmer fail.
Jimmer is the 5th guard on this roster, and everyone including him knew he would have to beat rivers to get meaningful time. I don’t see how him playing or not really effects final results of games.
Outscored the kings 31-15 in the 3rd, been a real improvement from last year’s struggles with 2nd half adjustments and flat 3rd quarters. No one on the floor is capable of slowing down Cousins, but if the Pels keep forcing turnovers they have a good chance of winning this
Just about nailed it doc …very happy we got the W!
PatrickAWorth I think Jimmer pretty clear was ahead of Rivers on the offensive end in the preseason. But Rivers rebounded better, especially down the stretch. I think for now as long as Rivers is playing ok he’ll get the burn because then there’s the chance he can be traded for a 2nd round pick or combined with another bench player for perhaps an upgrade at SF.
I don’t understand why Salmons gets any time over Miller or Fredette…? Why?? Good win Pels.
bradalexander1 Instead of SF, he looks like a TF; tiny forward. Just too small to guard anyone of decent size at that position.
too bad politics in sports.jimmer should play.seen it 3yrs now.danny ainge boston.will b his home to shine.keep being a true professional jimmer.we love u for ur example of sportsmanship in todays environment,,go cougs!