Backyard Shootout: New Orleans Pelicans
They defeated the struggling Pistons on Sunday afternoon, and they have now won nine of their last 11 games.
With the regular season coming to a close in three weeks, Zion Williamson’s continued play is perhaps the key factor making the Pelicans appear more threatening. Cross your fingers. Williamson has played 60 games this season, compared to just 114 in his first three seasons.
The data indicates that he has improved his physical condition. This month, he played seven games in a row with an average of 27.3 points and 8.3 rebounds. With 36 points on Sunday, Williamson intimidated the struggling Pistons. After overcoming a lung ailment early in the season, CJ McCollum is also concluding the season strongly. In two of the previous five games, he scored thirty points.
This month, Trey Murphy III has been a firebrand from the periphery. He had averaged 19 points per game going into Sunday’s game and had made 45.1% of his 3-pointers in 10 March games. In addition, the Pelicans have a formidable backup guard in Jose Alvarado, who put up a monster performance (17 points, seven rebounds, and six assists) in a Friday night victory over Miami, and a lockdown defender in Herbert Jones.
The primary worry is that Brandon Ingram, the team’s second-leading scorer, may miss the rest of the regular season due to a bone bruise in his left knee. They trail the Clippers by just a little margin for the No. 4 slot in the rankings, but the Suns, Kings, and Mavericks are all not far behind. To escape the play-in tournament, they must hold off at least two of those three teams.
The Pelicans’ postseason record is comparatively empty when compared to other seasons. They took home two series victories in the first round: one in 2007–08 and another in 2017–18. They were eliminated by Oklahoma City in the play-in round and defeated by Phoenix in the first round in the previous two seasons.