With the second half of the season underway, the Clippers head on the road. Check out our full Clippers vs Pelicans game preview below.
Clippers vs Pelicans Game Information
When: 6:00 PM Pacific Time
Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
How To Watch: ESPN, Fox Sports Prime Ticket
Projected Starters:
LA Clippers: Reggie Jackson – Paul George – Kawhi Leonard – Nicolas Batum – Serge Ibaka
New Orleans Pelicans: Eric Bledsoe – Lonzo Ball – Brandon Ingram – Zion Williamson – Steven Adams
Injury Report:
LA Clippers: Patrick Beverley – OUT (Right Knee Soreness)
New Orleans Pelicans: J.J. Redick – OUT (Heel)
The Big Picture
It turns out that when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George both play, the Clippers are pretty good! Who knew. They have a +18.8 net rating when the two of them are on the floor, and are 19-6 in the 25 games both have suited up in. That includes an absolute beatdown of the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, as the Clippers snapped a 3-game losing streak and got off to a strong start to the second half of the season.
Now, it’s up to them to keep the ball rolling without starting point guard Patrick Beverley, who exited early Thursday with right knee soreness. The Clippers’ lackluster February left them in fourth place in the Western Conference, and they need to take advantage of a run of games with George and Leonard both in the lineup to rattle off some wins and improve their seeding outlook. They’re a loss back from third-place LAL, with a serious opportunity to gain ground as Anthony Davis remains out of the lineup. Then, they’re 3 losses behind the Phoenix Suns for second and a full six losses behidn the first-place Utah Jazz, who will be hard to pass at this point.
According to Tankathon, the Clippers have the 16th-hardest remaining strength of schedule now that the rest of the season’s games have been released. The Lakers have the 7th-hardest, the Suns have the 11th-hardest, and the Jazz have the easiest second-half schedule of any team in the NBA. The Pelicans are no pushover, but this is exactly the kind of game against sub-.500 teams where the Clippers can’t afford to have any more slip-ups.
The Antagonist
New Orleans is still trying to figure out exactly what they have with Zion Williamson, but one thing is for sure–they’ve got something special. It’s not exactly surprising that Zion is already an All-Star level talent, but 25.5 points per game on over 60% shooting at 20 years old? Sheesh. Williamson is not only a generational talent, but he has a unique game as a monstrously strong 6’7″ forward who does almost all of his damage around the rim. Zion is amazing, Brandon Ingram is also a fringe All-Star talent. But the Pelicans still have a lot of work to do as they try to figure out how to build around them.
Eric Bledsoe clearly isn’t the long-term answer at point guard. Lonzo Ball has bounced back after a bad start to the year, but is he good enough for the Pelicans to dole out a big contract in restricted free agency next summer and restrict their flexibility to build around Zion and Ingram? The team just traded for Steven Adams and gave him an extension, but it seems like a floor-spacing center would be a better fit with Zion.
Still, that starting 5 should be better than 16-22, especially since they haven’t lost very many starter games to injury. There’s really no excuse, given their personnel, for the Pelicans to be 28th in the NBA in defensive rating, and while I’ve seen a lot of New Orleans writers on twitter routinely saying that the team doesn’t play with enough effort or fight, I have to look at the coaching. From the admittedly little I’ve seen of the Pels this year, it looks like Stan Van Gundy is running an archaic pack-the-paint defense that encourages other teams to shoot threes. New Orleans allows 39.4 opponent 3PA per game, and opponents shoot 39.2% from beyond the arc–both among the worst marks in the league. You can’t encourage teams to take open threes and stop them in the NBA, and the Pelicans haven’t done much stopping anyone this season.
Clippers vs Pelicans Game Notes
- Stepping Up: Reggie Jackson deserves praise for exceeding expectations this season. He’s shooting a career high from deep and has the best assist to turnover ratio of his career, and he’s had multiple big performances in place of injured starters. On aggregate, it’s not like he’s been amazing–but he’s been better than is fair to expect from a minimum-salary player. Similarly, Terance Mann has had a really impressive sophomore campaign, and I expect we’ll see plenty of both of them over the next several games with Beverley sidelined at least until the Clippers return to LA next Saturday. The real question is if we’ll see more of Luke Kennard, who has struggled immensely this season but has had some encouraging performances lately.
- Three-Point Shooting: I already mentioned that the Pelicans are a terrible three-point defense team by design. The Clippers, on the other hand, are having a historic season shooting the ball from beyond the arc. If New Orleans doesn’t adjust, a lot of 40%+ shooters are going to be getting a lot of open looks for LAC tomorrow, which could lead to a major blowout.
- Game Thread: The comments on this post will be our live game thread for tonight’s game. Sign up for a free account and join the conversation!
213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.
