Official Game Thread: Hawks at Pelicans (7 PM EST Tip!)

[lethalweapon3]

“I am NOT a NutriSystem player. I AM A NUTRISYSTEM!”

 

The New Orleans Pelicans continue to be plagued with injury issues. None of them, as of this morning, involve Zion Williamson.

That fact must warm the cockles of Willie Green’s heart.

A former New Orleans Hornet who signed in Atlanta to help form the VetMin crew that bolstered the Hawks during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 NBA season, Green’s third season of coaching in the Crescent City is underway.

Season one concluded, after a 36-46 record, in the Playoffs’ first round following a successful run through the inaugural Play-Ins. Last season, 42-40 (27-14 at home) was only enough to clinch a Play-In berth in the NBA West, leading to a loss at home versus upstart OKC. Both campaigns were pockmarked with lingering questions about the health, fitness and mindset of the budding superstar Willie G inherited when he first assumed the top job.

Williamson’s offseason foot fracture in 2021 had team officials suggesting he could be ready to go by the season’s tipoff. Then, December became the goal. Then, it was around the All-Star Break. By season’s end, everyone was still left waiting.

Last year was shaping up to be the renaissance season. Zion earned his first Player of the Week honor last December, and the Pels, peaking at 23-12, were the talk of the West, surging to the top of the conference by month’s end.

Unfortunately, Zion would suffer a hamstring injury. But team officials were confident he’d be back in action by the end of January, just in time to appear in the All-Star Game. Then, the story went, it could be a week or two after the Break. Then, maybe in time to salvage a late playoff run. Then, perhaps he could make it to the Play-In game at Smoothie King Center. Then… never mind!

Winning or losing, Green was left after games to face media members desperate to get the scoop on when Williamson might touch hardwood in a basketball uniform, fielding questions of how his team is faring despite all the hovering ambiguity. Blessed with the gift of gab, the glib Pels PBO David Griffin could offer the head coach he hired only so much cover.

This offseason, the Pelicans gave the whole ordeal a sobering look, and figured out what needed to change: Zion! Oh, and the formerly Aints-centric medical staff, with their routinely ring-around-the-rosy projections regarding their rotund franchise face.

“This was the first summer where we’ve seen Zion take his profession seriously,” Griffin noted to the Times-Picayune, a perception which, like Williamson, carried a lot of weight, considering how much his online mentions during the offseason had little to do with basketball or conditioning. Griffin now defers details regarding Williamson and other players’ health and gameday readiness to GM Trajan Langdon.

Williamson, for his part, seems bought-in to the internal shifts. “The Pelicans have put in a lot of things this offseason to not only prevent things like (his and teammates’ injuries), but to react to it in the best way possible,” he told the Times-Picayune. “I think what the Pelicans have done, there is good structure.”

Even with preseason assurances that personal and organizational bodies have transformed, uncertainty regarding Zion’s preparedness to hit the ground running threatened to overtake concerns about the Mississippi River saltwater wedge intrusion, potentially rendering tapwater undrinkable, as the banner headline in and around N’Awlins.

Four games under his not-so-svelte belt, and Zion (21.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.0 APG) looks a lot like his not-so-old self, in a good way; slashing the lane, crashing the offensive glass, occasionally dishing to the perimeter when the path to the rim gets too jagged, all while hovering around 30 MPG (15.8 drives/game per Second Spectrum data, most among full-time NBA frontcourt players).

He has yet, though, to pass the first big test. Citing rest, the team withheld Williamson from playing in New Orleans’ first back-end of a back-to-back, back home versus Detroit after Wednesday’s 22-point comeback win before a national audience at OKC (erasing 20-point deficits along the path to victory, these days in the NBA, is literally for the birds).

There’s a lot of load to manage, and Zion (20-and-10 plus 8 assists @ OKC) has started out okay, on balance. Yet this season could not begin without injury drama among the rest of the team.

Jose Alvarado sprained an ankle in the offseason, and the team was confident their change-of-pace point guard could be ready for the opener. That is, until they weren’t. Naji Marshall hyperextended his knee in a preseason loss to the Hawks in Atlanta, and in the evaluation process the medical staff discovered a bone bruise, too. The goal was to see if he’d be ready by the end of October. Instead, the goalposts have moved two more weeks down the field.

Zion’s co-star Brandon Ingram (45 games in 2022-23, 55 the season before, 61 the season before that) made it through just two games before being listed day-to-day-to-day-to-day with knee tendinitis. Starting forward Trey Murphy tore a meniscus in an early September workout, and the hope is he’ll be back up to speed before this month ends. The proof? It’s in the crème brûlée.

Even at half-staff, Green has been able to turn to Herb Jones (2.0 BPG, 1.2 SPG), who helped force a hobbled Shai Gilgeous-Alexander into settling for an uncomfortable game-winning three-point attempt on Wednesday, Dyson Daniels, and rookie Jordan Hawkins to give ballhandlers and shooters fits. New Orleans has held opponents to a league-low 28.0 3FG% in the early going, with no other teams presently in the sub-30s. Still, Green would rather lean on Ingram and Murphy than Daniels, Hawkins, Kira Lewis, and C.J. McCollum (team-high 33 points in the 125-116 win vs. DET; 29 points the night before @ OKC) to get critical stops.

For Green’s sake, I hope he’ll be around long enough to be held accountable, or gain praise, for what his team (4-1; season-high 72 first-half points w/o B.I. or Zion vs. DET) can accomplish with a reasonably full rotation, should that day ever come to pass. In the meantime, Quin Snyder’s Hawks are in town (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS New Orleans), carrying a three-game winning streak and a decided depth advantage.

Trae Young made it through Wednesday’s 130-121 victory in Atlanta over the Wizards despite dealing with Achilles inflammation. But neither he nor Coach Quin could have felt great about him having to play, with his team up by as much as 26 points in the final frame, just to thwart Washington’s bench-steered clawback (another ~70 half-game points allowed, this time in the second half) because anyone else bringing up the ball just to set up the halfcourt offense proved to be a chore.

“The fourth quarter,” Snyder remarked postgame, “we didn’t execute the way that we wanted to.” Quin noted how his team was able to keep turnovers down and not succumb to defensive pressure from a increasingly desperate Minnesota club during Monday’s turnaround victory. But there were strategic lapses on Wednesday that the Hawks (3-2) need to correct going forward versus far more capable clubs. 

This game would have been a good opportunity for Snyder to give rookie Kobe Bufkin (minus-10 vs. TyTy Washington at the close of last Sunday’s runaway win at MIL) his first regular-season mid-game test. But after a thumb fracture sustained during Skyhawks practice? Never mind!

Perhaps, instead of Bufkin, Coach Quin could have the esteemed Patty Mills (Langdon’s teammate with the Spurs from 2012-15) play his first official minutes in a Hawks uniform. Mills won’t alleviate Atlanta’s need to have either one of Young or Dejounte Murray directing traffic against elevated defensive pressure. But it can obviate Snyder’s reliance on both his star guards sharing the floor, in tandem, no matter the score on the board.

Assuming a replenished Williamson is on the floor, Atlanta has the forwards with active hands to fill lanes and make Zion become a crafty dribbler, rather than a straight-line driver bowling for Hawks. If he is, as Nique might put it, just moving the ball from his own side-to-side, that’s shaving extra seconds off possessions that the Pels, specifically top perimeter threats McCollum and waiver-wire pickup “Matty Icicle” Ryan (career-high 20 points vs. DET), are unlikely to get back.

At the other end of the floor, those same Hawk bigs need to be assertive in cutting to the hoop, especially when Jones is occupied with helping trap Murray or Young. That could compel harried rotations and actions around the paint that can lead to early foul trouble from Williamson, Jonas Valanciunas and/or Larry Nance, Jr. In Zion’s case, a little extra in-game rest can’t hurt anybody, especially if it’s in the process of gifting the league’s best free throw shooters (85.2 team FT%; Clint Capela is 10-for-12! MIP! MIP!) trips to the charity stripe.

New Orleans’ bon temps quit roulet-ing last season when the Pelicans couldn’t keep a plug in the dam holding back the injury woes. Despite the fast start, there remains reason to be wary going forward, especially if their biggest star struggles to make it through consecutive games, or through most of the regular season. With all respect due to Kermit The Frog, out here in the swampy bayou, it’s not easy being Willie Green.

 

Fall Back! Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

I'm assuming we go big with JJ starting to match up vs Zion and Big Val.

In the preseason game, Quin started OO and Bruno (CC rest).

[lethalweapon3]

Ko-B (broke thumb) and 2 T's Matthews (strained calf) are the only players on the Hawks side of the Boo-Boo Report. Trent "For the Trees" Forrest is the sole two-way player not listed as a G-League assignment, and is presumed to be with the team, perhaps in place of Bufkin for the time being.

Zion is indeed good to go for the Nopes, and Brandon Ingram (knee tendinitis) remains listed as Questionable as of the 10:30 AM update.

~lw3 

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

not-so-svelte belt

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

There’s a lot of load to manage

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

It’s in the crème brûlée.

 

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

rookie Jordan Hawkins

My guy! One pick short!  

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

gifting the league’s best free throw shooters (85.2 team FT%; Clint Capela is 10-for-12! MIP! MIP!) trips to the charity stripe.

nice!

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

it’s not easy being Willie Green.

 

@lethalweapon3 dat boy guuuuuud! Thanks captain! Slayin us every game thread!

GO HAWKS!

ps Vegas line is Pels -1.5 o/u 234.5 ML Nawlins -125 Hawks +105

pps 2K is tough on the road. They got me in this one but Trae and OO put up digits! 

 

OO giving Val and Zion the biz wax!!  

 

EVEN BABY CJ GETS A TASTE TRAE CAN’T EVEN LOOK  

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I'm assuming we go big with JJ starting to match up vs Zion and Big Val.

In the preseason game, Quin started OO and Bruno (CC rest).

Their size worries me.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[benhillboy]

The Pelicans seem to never be at full strength.  Murphy and Alvarado are major absences.  Still a quality win if the full-strength Hawks (Kobe notwithstanding) can pull off the slight Vegas upset.

Edited November 4, 2023 by benhillboy

[lethalweapon3]

Yesterday the Pels added stretch-four Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to a two-way deal. Last December, his fourth-quarter triple helped OKC take a lead to pull off a win in Atlanta. JRE, who declared for the 2020 Draft at the same time as Nova teammate Saddiq Bey before withdrawing and returning to college for another year, was traded to Houston in last month's KPJ/Dipo deal, then waived by the Rockets.

~lw3

[Diesel]

5 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

This offseason, the Pelicans gave the whole ordeal a sobering look, and figured out what needed to change: Zion! Oh, and the formerly Aints-centric medical staff, with their routinely ring-around-the-rosy projections regarding their rotund franchise face.

“This was the first summer where we’ve seen Zion take his profession seriously,” Griffin noted to the Times-Picayune, a perception which, like Williamson, carried a lot of weight, considering how much his online mentions during the offseason had little to do with basketball or conditioning. Griffin now defers details regarding Williamson and other players’ health and gameday readiness to GM Trajan Langdon.

It's funny that we live in a time when Trajan Langdon and Landry Fields are GMs?  This game won't be easy at all.   They have pretty good size and CJ is ready to play...

We have to expect a lot from ICE TRAE AND DJ FLAY!!

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Spud2nique]

You squawkers ready? I’m watching live baby! love me some squawk talk! When does the chat room get goin again? 

[Spud2nique]

Stay together for 48 min let’s gooo!

Pels uni like our 2017 black highlighters.

[Spud2nique]

ohhhhkaaayy!

They wanna BE us!  

[Spud2nique]

DJ nice drive! Continuing it!

Niiiiice Hunter way to drive strong  

[SalvorMallow]

I'm loving the way Hunter is attacking the basket...He's finally using that adonis body to absorb contact

[Spud2nique]

JJ pretty step in 3!

JJ effected that CJ Miss layup too!

[Spud2nique]

Trae middy  

[Spud2nique]

JJ 5/10 points he’s active and focused as he’s been. Continues to impress.

[thecampster]

So this is what lethargy looks like?

[Carmine]

Have Murray bring the ball up rest of the game.