2024 Play-In Tournament (West): #7 New Orleans Pelicans vs #9 Sacramento Kings

Chuck Everett · Post #21 » by **Chuck Everett** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:38 pm

Ingram, McCollum and Val just gonna have to step up. It's not like they haven't beaten the Kings without Zion before.

Post #22 » by **DOT** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:43 pm

I can't believe Adam Silver is rigging things for the Kings to make the playoffs.

RIPskaterdude · Post #23 » by **RIPskaterdude** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:44 pm

McCollum always has career games against the Kings after they didn't draft him, and JV plays well against Sabonis. Pelicans win 110 to 97

Mrakar · Post #24 » by **Mrakar** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:50 pm

RIPskaterdude wrote:McCollum always has career games against the Kings after they didn't draft him, and JV plays well against Sabonis. Pelicans win 110 to 97

This, but sadly Willie will play him 15 minutes. He should get fired if Jonas doesnt get 30 minutes on Friday, but sadly Zion injury basicly guarantees he is on Pels bench next season.

RIPskaterdude · Post #25 » by **RIPskaterdude** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:58 pm

Mrakar wrote:
RIPskaterdude wrote:McCollum always has career games against the Kings after they didn't draft him, and JV plays well against Sabonis. Pelicans win 110 to 97

This, but sadly Willie will play him 15 minutes. He should get fired if Jonas doesnt get 30 minutes on Friday, but sadly Zion injury basicly guarantees he is on Pels bench next season.

He played 33 minutes against the Kings when they won on April 11th

Mrakar · Post #26 » by **Mrakar** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 7:01 pm

RIPskaterdude wrote:
Mrakar wrote:
RIPskaterdude wrote:McCollum always has career games against the Kings after they didn't draft him, and JV plays well against Sabonis. Pelicans win 110 to 97

This, but sadly Willie will play him 15 minutes. He should get fired if Jonas doesnt get 30 minutes on Friday, but sadly Zion injury basicly guarantees he is on Pels bench next season.
He played 33 minutes against the Kings when they won on April 11th

Nance was OUT bcs of personal reasons, i wrote a deep post about that in "Lets talk about Willie Green" thread. Thats why Pels won. Otherwise JV would play 7 minutes and rest would play Nance.
Dont get me wrong i don't think JV is better player then Nance, they both have flaws, but for some matchups JV is the right guy.
We can play this game inside-out with JV or take fadaway midrangers. Decision that Willie makes will decide the winner.

ChipotleWest · Post #27 » by **ChipotleWest** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 7:25 pm

M2J wrote:Brandon Ingram getting slammed today. I don't have a dog in that fight. But the guy did just try to come back Sunday when he probably would still be out with his injury

That's the thing about sports, if you play you're expected to play well. Nobody cares about the reason you don't, even coming off an injury. It shouldn't be that way really but it is.

RIPskaterdude · Post #28 » by **RIPskaterdude** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 7:30 pm

Mrakar wrote:
RIPskaterdude wrote:
Mrakar wrote:This, but sadly Willie will play him 15 minutes. He should get fired if Jonas doesnt get 30 minutes on Friday, but sadly Zion injury basicly guarantees he is on Pels bench next season.
He played 33 minutes against the Kings when they won on April 11th

Nance was OUT bcs of personal reasons, i wrote a deep post about that in "Lets talk about Willie Green" thread. Thats why Pels won. Otherwise JV would play 7 minutes and rest would play Nance.
Dont get me wrong i don't think JV is better player then Nance, they both have flaws, but for some matchups JV is the right guy.
We can play this game inside-out with JV or take fadaway midrangers. Decision that Willie makes will decide the winner.

Fair, but he played 22 mins and had 15/12 when Zion missed the 01/07 game (Nance played 14 mins) and the Pelicans won by 33. Kings were missing two bench players? But had Monk and Huerter.

Mrakar · Post #29 » by **Mrakar** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 7:33 pm

RIPskaterdude wrote:
Mrakar wrote:
RIPskaterdude wrote:He played 33 minutes against the Kings when they won on April 11th

Nance was OUT bcs of personal reasons, i wrote a deep post about that in "Lets talk about Willie Green" thread. Thats why Pels won. Otherwise JV would play 7 minutes and rest would play Nance.
Dont get me wrong i don't think JV is better player then Nance, they both have flaws, but for some matchups JV is the right guy.
We can play this game inside-out with JV or take fadaway midrangers. Decision that Willie makes will decide the winner.

Fair, but he played 22 mins and had 15/12 when Zion missed the 01/07 game (Nance played 14 mins) and the Pelicans won by 33. Kings were missing two bench players? But had Monk and Huerter.

That was earlier in the season, he would have played even more if it wasnt a blowout. This whole Nance-JV thing started to be regular thing in last 2-2.5 months...

Shock Defeat · Post #30 » by **Shock Defeat** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 7:56 pm

I can see Pels winning because I don't trust the Kings.

Wammy Giveaway · Post #31 » by **Wammy Giveaway** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:39 pm

1. Kings lost season series to Pelicans - all four games.

2. Williamson is out for the 8th seed qualifier, meaning easy-peasy for Kings, right. Wrong. In the sweep by the Pelicans, Williamson was inactive in one of those, and still beat them. In fact, of the 12 games where Williamson was DNP or inactive, their win vs. Kings was the largest: by 33 PTS. Average margin of victory in all five games: 19.2 PTS.

3. Pelicans have an incentive to make the playoffs, but it'll require them defeating Thunder. If they can miraculously pull off an upset, they will draw the Clippers in the 2nd round. Pelicans have owned Clippers for two season series already, and the Clippers have been abysmal in handling them because of their tendency to not take lottery teams seriously. Should they get Clippers, they will automatically sweep them out of the playoffs, beginning the cycle of a forced rebuild. Yeah, everyone wants a piece of the Clippers as the team to unceremoniously end their Leonard-George short-lived True Big 3 era of Harden-George-Leonard, and if Mavericks can't do it, maybe the Pelicans.

SlovenianDragon · Post #32 » by **SlovenianDragon** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 8:57 pm

bisme37 wrote:I'm still really confused about the Zion injury if I'm being honest. They're saying they think it's his hamstring. And it was bad enough for Z to take himself out of a huge game with 3 minutes left. But then he sprinted off the court and reportedly left the arena with no limp.

Perhaps the problem here is I just don't understand hamstring injuries?

I would assume he wanted to rush back to the locker room so he could get evaluated/treatment to return to the game...Booker for some reason gets lots of hammy injuries and while not that serious seem to take alot of time to recover...And I would assume more so for a guy like zion..

OxAndFox · Post #33 » by **OxAndFox** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 9:31 pm

Wammy Giveaway wrote:1. Kings lost season series to Pelicans - all four games.

2. Williamson is out for the 8th seed qualifier, meaning easy-peasy for Kings, right. Wrong. In the sweep by the Pelicans, Williamson was inactive in one of those, and still beat them. In fact, of the 12 games where Williamson was DNP or inactive, their win vs. Kings was the largest: by 33 PTS. Average margin of victory in all five games: 19.2 PTS.

3. Pelicans have an incentive to make the playoffs, but it'll require them defeating Thunder. If they can miraculously pull off an upset, they will draw the Clippers in the 2nd round. Pelicans have owned Clippers for two season series already, and the Clippers have been abysmal in handling them because of their tendency to not take lottery teams seriously. Should they get Clippers, they will automatically sweep them out of the playoffs, beginning the cycle of a forced rebuild. Yeah, everyone wants a piece of the Clippers as the team to unceremoniously end their Leonard-George short-lived True Big 3 era of Harden-George-Leonard, and if Mavericks can't do it, maybe the Pelicans.

Kings have lost all 5 games to the Pels this season.

Just got to get it right in 1 now. Kings played with a lot more urgency against GSW. Let's see it against NOP because they have downright owned us.
JV plays exceptionally well on Sabonis. Herb is the perfect defender for Fox. On the other end CJ turns into Steph (see below) when he plays the Kings and Ingram finds his inner KD.

There are a lot of variables that can go into a win for either team and 3pt shooting isn't the #1, but its interesting. The NOP definitely shoot the ball well against the Kings, as most seem to do. If the Kings don't come up with something to keep the shooters under wraps, it's Pelicans by how much.

3PT Shooting Pelicans
12/28 Game 1 @NOP (No CJ, Ingram 5/5) - Pelicans win by 36
7/30 Game 2 @NOP (No CJ, starters go 1/13) - Pelicans win by 5
14/31 Game 3 @SAC (BI/CJ/Herb/Murphy combine 12/24) - Pelicans win by 10
19/35 Game 4 @SAC (CJ 7/10) - Pelicans win by 33
22/40 Game 5 @SAC (CJ 9/12, Murphy 6/12) - Pelicans win by 12

So the games against Sacramento this season CJ McCollum is shooting the 3 at over 70%. All of the games were at Golden 1, but I think he would be happy to be playing the Kings regardless.

Swish1906 · Post #34 » by **Swish1906** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 9:44 pm

Next Zion contract is going to have even stricter weight clauses

Wammy Giveaway · Post #35 » by **Wammy Giveaway** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 9:49 pm

OxAndFox wrote:Kings have lost all 5 games to the Pels this season.

I said four because one of those games was part of the In-Season Tournament, and I did not want to count that. I believe that game was not part of the regular season series, but at the same time I didn't know how to properly address it. Besides, a regular season series is only four games anyway, and the one that I did pick was outside of that frame (a game in January). And even then, Kings couldn't defeat Pelicans no matter if Williamson played or not. Now it looks like Kings are automatically out, and it's a shame because it's right after eliminating their arch nemesis Warriors. I'm afraid the revenge is gonna end up being bittersweet.

Kings need a miracle.

OxAndFox · Post #36 » by **OxAndFox** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 10:38 pm

Wammy Giveaway wrote:
OxAndFox wrote:Kings have lost all 5 games to the Pels this season.

I said four because one of those games was part of the In-Season Tournament, and I did not want to count that. I believe that game was not part of the regular season series, but at the same time I didn't know how to properly address it. Besides, a regular season series is only four games anyway, and the one that I did pick was outside of that frame (a game in January). And even then, Kings couldn't defeat Pelicans no matter if Williamson played or not. Now it looks like Kings are automatically out, and it's a shame because it's right after eliminating their arch nemesis Warriors. I'm afraid the revenge is gonna end up being bittersweet.

Kings need a miracle.

It is part of the season series though because you know what? If they were tied 2-2 heading into that 5th game it decides the season series.

Kings are right there with or without Zion IMO. They haven't played well against the Pels, and that is largely due to the Pels. You have to give them credit. They have the match ups and have a good strategy. Let's see how the game plays out.

Post #37 » by **Froob** » Wed Apr 17, 2024 10:48 pm

Brutal break for the Pels, I feel for them. Kings are going to win this.

Post #38 » by **NO-KG-AI** » Thu Apr 18, 2024 5:15 am

When you beat a team that many times in a row, they are kinda due up for one. I think the last game was a punch in the gut for us, and the Kings got the opposite, they got a big momentum swing and monkey off their back.

I feel not great going in, and it feels pointless either way, we’ll be swept before Zion returns either way.

Pelslife :’(

Johnny Tomala · Post #39 » by **Johnny Tomala** » Thu Apr 18, 2024 10:35 am

Kings.

Sakkreth · Post #40 » by **Sakkreth** » Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:26 am

Chuck Everett wrote:Ingram, McCollum and Val just gonna have to step up. It's not like they haven't beaten the Kings without Zion before.

JV has to step up from the bench first. Since I want Kings to win I hope Willie Green proves he's clueless once again. JV knows Sabonis very very well and plays him well. With Zion out there's no excuse for JV not getting 30+ minutes.

Who wins and becomes the 8 seed?