Game 42 : New Orleans Pelicans (17-24) @ Denver Nuggets (25-16) - 3:00 PM

[ducler]

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[NuggetsWY]

The matchups are sorta' weird - players from the opposite team that have very different skills/styles. But overall, I think it favors Denver. The matchup that makes me wonder the most is Zion. I do not believe Millsap can cover him. The other option is to have Millsap cover Ingram - and that seems worse. If there's a game that Millsap could take a rest from, this is it. But Malone doesn't do that, so ...

[THE J0KER]

Zion, Ingram, and Ball are TOP2 pick from the last 5 drafts, so this is the perfect opportunity to ex #7 pick Murray and #14 Porter to show everyone's today that they are at least equally talented.

Denver is bold favorites today, but Pells is an arguably better team than Chicago, so if we once again underrate opponent this time we will pay full price.

[skywalker33]

Geez, Malone is one stubborn mule, Milsap GAVE him an opportunity to bring him off the bench but Malone , in his infinite stupidity still starts PM.

[psimanic1]

We need shooters.. We cant have 2 guards shooting 2/13 combined

[Manolito]

After watching Millsap game, you can all keep saying we don't need a PF.

This team is a first round exit with current roster

Sent from my GM1913 using RealGM mobile app

[psimanic1]

After watching Millsap game, you can all keep saying we don't need a PF.

This team is a first round exit with current roster

Sent from my GM1913 using RealGM mobile app

Who said that? Almost everyone is saying we dont nees PF if MPJ will play it, not Millsap...

[Mickey8]

Can this fool Malone stop playing Millsap in the starting five and limit Barton's shot attempts Jokic needs to be assertive on the offense from the start go, both as the scorer and facilitator, he wont get any mercy from the refs if he isn't aggressive on the offensive end , he shot zero free throws today, even though he was grabbed and shoved as usual all game long. Another bad loss this season.

[psimanic1]

Can this fool Malone stop playing Millsap in the starting five and limit Barton's shot attempts Jokic needs to be assertive on the offensive from the start go, both as the scorer and facilitator.

We cant go into the season hoping Jokic will score 35+ every night, or Murray... They can do it but I would much rather watch them score 20-25 a piece and other guys being more efficient from the passes they get. Malone doesnt have one action called that doesnt include Jokic or Murray, and if it wasnt for Jokic, he would probably be on ESPN or TNT commentinf on Nuggets games instead..
We need JJ Redicks, T. Ross, More efficient shooters and we need some plays for them. You cant expect someone to just get in and score 15pts when you need them if you leave them behind whole game. Murray, Morris, MPJ and Jokic should be only guys you dont put on table for improvementa this year, unless you can get Beal for example or Kawhi. But what we need the most, 3.5 player that can switch with MPJ at guarding SF/PF, Millsap cant do that anymore, maybe can play some backup C who knows

[skywalker33]

Have to wonder, if we have a guard who can't shoot playing decent bench mins, why isn't it Hampton ?? Facu isn't all that and a bag of chips IMO.

[THE J0KER]

Well deserved loss, despite refs really helped Pelicans in this upset.

I thought Malone finally realizes this month how to use Barton as a 3&D player, not to use him against his own team again. But in the 1st half, we have exactly old bad Barton who takes 13FGA while the other 3 starters Jokic+Murray+Millsap take only 12, who was on-floor general instead of Jokic, and who played many hero-balls instead of Murray, while his 3p% and defense was bad. Also, Malone once again acted like a school teacher when Murray get 3rd foul he automatically benched him in 2nd quarter when the Denver game collapsed and we needed him the most, and also in the 4th quarter when we needed Murray even more, he was out of the gas because his 35mpg today was split 14min in 1st half and 21 in the 2nd because of that early benching in qtr-2. Even these last-minute subs of Jokic are back again, so we finished 1st half with Jokic and Murray on the bench (no surprise NOP won the final minute of 1st half 6-0). The only all-star who makes sense to be benched sometimes during the final minutes of the halves was Shaq/Howard/Big-Ben...etc due to terrible FT%, but Malone doing this with Jokic using the team's worst FT% shooter Hartenstein (Plumlee in past)!?

Young Millsap would be probably a nightmare for Zion, but 36y Millsap is not a threat at all, so why he played 30 minutes today while Green just 16 and Nnaji DNP? Porter was 17-9 decent, but I expect 20-10 games from him when he playing 35+ minutes. Jokic was brilliant in 2nd half and finished the game with a strong 29p triple-double, but still no excuses for him for being so passive in the 1st half.

Pelicans bench outplayed Nuggets bench today with the key contribution in +/-.

[Mickey8]

The last three , four games , Jokic is playing the same way in the first quarters, he doesn't look to be the scoring threat until late in the quarter , I think his mindset is to let his teammates get their share , get themselves going , and I think that's wrong approach , he needs to set the tone from the beginning , there is no reason for him not taking a single shot attempt for 6,7 minutes in the quarter,and then when he gets in the foul trouble like today, he needs to go out of the game and team is in the hole and Denver have to play catch up all game long, its been like that since Millsap was inserted into the starting line up , Jokic can balance both, being the scoring threat and let his teammates playing off of him. This line up with Jokic, Millsap and Porter is annoying and is not working well, Malone is using Morris absence just as an excuse so he can play Millsap , he can insert Dozier in the starting five until Morris is back.

[NuggetsWY]

Millsap's offense is a big problem. But a bigger problem is his defense. Williamson was his primary responsibility from what I could see and WIlliamson scored 30 points while Millsap scored 6 points. Williamson had 6 rebounds and Millsap had 3 rebounds. And Malone played Millsap 30 minutes? From everything I can see, this is Millsap's worst year of his career. Since leaving Atlanta, he's only had one really good year (2018-2019) but that's just my opinion.

Barton is becoming two different players. In one game he's a team player and in the next he's loafing on defense and forcing his own plays and shots.

Malone only played nine players and left Nnaji and others on the bench. Why? Please don't repeat his "trying to win" mantra. He's not using his best rotations and worse, he's not even trying to develop young players (except he'll claim "they can learn in practice").

Did anyone else notice our starters played 35, 35, 35, 36, 30 minutes?
Our bench took only 16 shots - are they afraid they'll be yanked? They were 1-8 from three.
Our starters shot 11-26 from three? Of course Barton was 2-9 and the rest were 9-17.

[The Rebel]

Millsap's offense is a big problem. But a bigger problem is his defense. Williamson was his primary responsibility from what I could see and WIlliamson scored 30 points while Millsap scored 6 points. Williamson had 6 rebounds and Millsap had 3 rebounds. And Malone played Millsap 30 minutes? From everything I can see, this is Millsap's worst year of his career. Since leaving Atlanta, he's only had one really good year (2018-2019) but that's just my opinion.

Barton is becoming two different players. In one game he's a team player and in the next he's loafing on defense and forcing his own plays and shots.

Malone only played nine players and left Nnaji and others on the bench. Why? Please don't repeat his "trying to win" mantra. He's not using his best rotations and worse, he's not even trying to develop young players (except he'll claim "they can learn in practice").

Did anyone else notice our starters played 35, 35, 35, 36, 30 minutes?
Our bench took only 16 shots - are they afraid they'll be yanked? They were 1-8 from three.
Our starters shot 11-26 from three? Of course Barton was 2-9 and the rest were 9-17.

I agree Millsap has been a huge problem all season, I don't think it is a coincidence that the run we went on came while he was out injured.

The only reason I can come up with why Millsap and Barton are playing so much is that we are trying to showcase them for trades.

While it is not being widely reported, I have had messages from a couple of guys on here that have inside sources with other teams, and Barton is being shopped with Millsap being filler on a buyout type of deal in some of the bigger deals floating around.

It is the only thing that makes sense the last few games.