March 31, 2023 • 37 mins
On the latest Pelicans Podcast presented by SeatGeek, Joe Cardosi & Jim Eichenhofer break down the tremendous win over the Nuggets in Denver and reflect on the 3-1 road stretch.
They also break down the reasons for the Pelicans' recent success, the packed slate of meaningful games coming up in the Western Conference, and the meaningful things to look out for in the final five games of the NBA regular season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome into the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast presented by Seat Geeg,
a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about
the squad and from the rebound. Know What the c
J Left Wing three Heat, Jack Christian James McCollum, three
for three Front three in the quarter for the thirty
(00:25):
five bucketgether. Yeah, you're right. The New Orleans Pelicans podcast
starts right now. Oh, Welcome to the Pelicans Podcast. I
am Joe Cardosi, joined by the cock Shore Jim Ikenhoffer.
We are the Pelicans Podcast presented by Seat Geek, and
(00:48):
I don't think we could be any more jazz today.
I don't know if it's the lack of sleep in
the crazy delirium i'm feeling from just a whole week
of it. I don't know if it's the big win.
I don't know if it's just seeing your smiling face,
but I'm feeling dazzled today. I'm feeling dazzled as well.
I feel like I'm sure neither of us got a
ton of sleep last night, but it doesn't even matter
(01:09):
because we're here before ten am recording this. And I
know I was still tweeting at one thirty last night,
so I don't know how sad the math, yeah, something,
I'm fired up. I mean that was a great win
last night for a bunch of different reasons. To be
able to finish the road trip three and one. I
know there was definitely some concern going into it, and
(01:30):
people might have said, you know, hey, can you at
least go two and two? You know, am, maybe one
and three might be tough because of the competition, but man,
they picked a really good time to play some of
their best basketball of the season. Yes, especially you know,
as deflating as that Golden State loss was, especially because
the Pelicans it seemed like had it in hand. I
(01:52):
feel like this routing of the Denver Nuggets shorthanded quote
unquote with no yokik Uh sort of takes a lot
of that, you know, the muck off of that one.
You know, I feel much better about, you know, sort
of letting one slip away against one of the best
teams at home in the NBA. I think it's easy.
I don't want to say forget the Golden State game,
(02:12):
but it's easy to move past it. It's easy to
go back in your head of like, you know, that
was tough. The way that the game went, But I
mean you bounce back two days later and hold the
Nuggets to eighty eight points. Yes, they didn't have Yokitch,
but the Pelicans are also missing a certain all star that, uh,
I think is also important. Exactly. Yes, It's like people
people are saying that, oh, the no yok it makes
(02:33):
a huge difference. Yeah, it doesn't, It doesn't it. You know,
we we've been getting no credit for Zion being out.
People just sort of seem to forget that. But yeah,
it makes a huge difference in how a team operates.
We saw that with Denver last night. And you know,
another thing that we talked about last night on the
postgame show, which went into the wee hours, was you
(02:54):
know what it means for the Pells just just basically
in terms of the momentum, the the carryover from game
to game. A big problem we had with the Pelicans
performances not that long ago was that they would have
a great performance against one team and then just come
out flat or operate well in one area and then
just not be able to carry it over game to game. Now,
(03:16):
it seems like consistently, even with the Golden State loss,
you're seeing the Pelicans assert themselves, play the game, they
want to play it, and they are having no problem scoring. Now, yeah,
I think two things. One you just mentioned. I mean,
for a long stretch from January through March, the Pelicans
were one of the struggling offensive teams in the league,
maybe top or bottom five, bottom eight offense during that
(03:40):
long stretch. But lately that part of the floor has
been so much better. You're getting night in and night out,
You're getting a ton of productivity. You're getting Brandon Ingram
playing maybe the best basketball of his career. He has
two triple doubles over the last seven days. Two thursdays
in a row he came up with a triple double.
Second career triple double, right. And you know, also, I
(04:00):
gotta say props to Kingdram his thirty one points, eleven rebounds,
tenn assists. Only two players in franchise history with multiple
thirty point glaims, ten rebounds, ten assist games. That's a
BI and CP three. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. And so
you pair what he's been doing to lead the offense
with the defense has been so to me. The defense
(04:21):
is the foundation of why when you bring up consistency
and why they've been able to not have dips from
night to night and be able to string together a
bunch of wins. I know, no yokick, but look at
that score, one oh seven eighty eight right to the
number one seeded Denver Nuggets. And that's the third time
in the last five games that the Pelicans have held
(04:42):
the other team under one hundred points. As we know
in today's NBA, where everyone's shooting three pointers like it's
going out of style, and everyone's putting up points easily.
I mean, we're seeing one hundred and twenty points. Maybe
five years ago used to be like, well that's a
huge night, and now we see it happen all the time.
Go on. So if you hold Charlotte to ninety six,
you hold Land Okay, maybe that's not as impressive with
who their home fielding. Yes, you held them to ninety points,
(05:05):
you hold Denver to eighty eight, And I thought that
was the best defensive performance that the Pelicans have had
in a long time now. Denver definitely missed a bunch
of shots, and that was something that Willie Green talked
about after the game, was that they did have some
open looks that they didn't make. But if you look
at even with Yokich not on the court, if you
look at some of the weapons that they have with
Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Junior, some of their reserves are
(05:28):
pretty dangerous. I mean, it was it was a huge
plus to be able to hold them down the way
the Pelicans did. Murray had twenty one but Porter only
had ten. Aaron Gordon had eleven points one of the
other starters, so it was I think Christian Brown had
some good moments off the bench for them, and Bruce
Brown had a pretty good game as well with nineteen points.
(05:49):
But other than that, I mean, it was just it
was great stuff that the Pelicans did defensively. They had
Nuggets had two quarters under twenty points, so I mean,
just awesome start to the game and awesome the game defensive.
And we should also mention that Herb is doing all
this defensively with basically one eye. He was out there
with a mouse under his eye from Eric our pal
(06:10):
throwing an elbow at him and you know, still gutting
through it and operating well. Also, big props to our
friend Trey Murphy. He has the most threes in a
month in team history, his fifty eighth. There made it
in March, the most threes in team history. It seems
like this team is just putting themselves up in a
(06:30):
hollowed company records later, they are just operating great. Another
thing I love to see was Willie Green and Jonas
that T and T audio where he was like, hey, man,
you get one more pump fake one more and if
it works, maybe you get another one. It was nice
to see Willie Green in a good mood, feeling loose,
because I know that man has been feeling some pressure lately. Yeah.
(06:51):
I mean those two players that you mentioned. I mean
I talked about Ingraham his triple double, the way that
he's led the offense, the way that the offense has
reached a different level I mean over the same period
lately of a couple of weeks, the fact that the
Pelicans have gotten the ball to Jonnis Valentine is so
consistently and been able to lean on him to take
over stretches of games where he'll score eight points in
(07:12):
a few minutes and um just kind of set double
in the first quarter right right away. Yeah, he's been
so good. And Trey Murphy, I mean, we talk about
consistency every game since March twelfth he's made at least
three pointers, except for the game at Portland where he
was won for seven. Didn't need him to make a
lot of threes that game because bus Driver the number
(07:35):
one store exactly. Yeah, they only needed one for seven
from three point range from trade to win that game
by thirty four points. So we'll we'll give him a
pass on that one. But sure, it's pretty impressive the
fact that over the last ten games he's made at
least three three pointers in every single night. So and
even going back before that, he had a stretch where
he made three plus three pointers in almost every game. So,
(07:57):
I mean it's been since really the beginning of March.
I mean you mentioned how he set the franchise record
for most three pointers made. Now that March is over, yeah,
I mean the very start of March. He had three
threes at Portland when Portland was not using a bus
driver and their rotation back when they're still legitimate, three
threes at Golden State, and four at Sacramento on that
(08:18):
that same road trip. So I mean, he's been he's
been so good. He's been one of the best three
point shooters in the NBA over these last few weeks,
and it's evidenced by the fact that, you know, this
franchise has had some great, great three point shooters pages
Soyakovich for for one, and he still made more threes
than anyone ever has in a month. Yeah, I mean
that that's crazy to mention when you talk about the
three point shooters we've had here. You know, Trey Murphy
(08:40):
just absolutely shooting the cover off the ball. It shows
you why he was so untouchable and some of those
trade talks. You know, I do want to get to uh,
you know what it means this game, you know, we
it's a big win. Of course, it felt good to
beat the Denver Nuggets in their own house, especially when
you know, you looked at that schedule and then a
lot of people were saying, man, we could lose all
that whole stretch. Then you go three and one. I
(09:03):
think that feels pretty good, especially with the way you
played most of that Warriors game. So, you know, big
picture though, what does this mean for the Pells in
terms of standings? We did jump up. We were sitting
ninth as that game began, jumped up to seven. I know,
there's a lot of stuff still shaken out in the West.
But this one helped us a lot, it really, I mean,
this was immense to be able to pick up this
(09:23):
win was so huge as far as the position that
they're in. Really, if they had lost that game, they
would have been in ninth place going into Friday's games,
and then you'd have the potential for some of the
teams below them to make up some ground on the weekend. Okay,
see for example, plays in Indiana Friday that on paper,
you would think they would get that win even though
they did just lose to Charlotte and barely be Detroit.
(09:43):
But nonetheless, going back to specifically what it means for
New Orleans, I mean, for one thing, you know, we
were talking about this in the pregame radio show last night,
and I think mister Gus Katt and Gill made fun
of me a little bit, but by saying that he
was like, Jim's already given magic numbers, and I was like,
I was like, Gus, it's only five. So the magic
number now is only four because of the win last night.
(10:05):
So I did think that maybe going back a few days,
it was a little too early to get into magic number.
You don't want to say, hey, the magic number is fourteen,
and people are like, fourteen, Come on, that's ridiculous, But
now that it's four I think it is something that
we can really look at. So basically, if the Pelicans
win four more games the rest of the season, they're
in the play in tournament no matter what. But that
number can also be reduced by Utah and Dallas losses
(10:28):
as well, so the starting from that, Dallas losses look
more and more like, yes, they just seem like they
are crumbling right, And they play Miami and Atlanta both
on the road this weekend, So I'm sure we're going
to get into maybe more of the schedule and the
specifics and the scoreboard watching later, But from a Pelican standpoint,
they are getting closer and closer to clinching the play
(10:50):
in tournament birth, which to me is step one of
what we're looking at. But on the other end of
the spectrum in terms of the standings, they're back within
one game of Golden State. Now who's in sixth place.
I remember when after the Lakers loss in early March,
a lot of people are looking around and acting like
that clinch the Lakers, we're going to finish ahead of
the Pelicans and there was. That was the end of
(11:10):
the story, end of debate forgetting that. Yeah, and after
Tuesday's lost to Golden State, I think it was easy
to be like, Okay, this loss means the Pelicans can't
catch gold State. It's over blah blah blah. Only the Pelicans,
like I said, are only one game behind gold State.
Golden State is in that last spot where he feel
like we got a little something extra for them now
to Yeah, for sure, and the Pelicans have the tiebreaker
(11:31):
as well, so they're going to need a little bit
of help. But I do think that what Thursday's win
over Denver did, going back to your point and your question,
is it put them back into the conversation as far
as you know, it's not. They're not that far out
of sixth place. If they have a great homestand they can,
that's doable as well. So just across the board, I
(11:52):
mean it was. It was a massive win. I know
a lot of people looked at it on paper like
you're playing Denver on the road. That's probably chopped that
up as a law if you're trying to fill out
your I mean, when you look at those four games,
you know, honestly, if I expected to split it fifty fifty.
If if I was going to say it and I
was looking at Golden State Denver, you know, okay, I
would not be shocked by those I hope we win them,
(12:15):
but that wouldn't that wouldn't shock me. So you look
at this homestand we're gonna get into their all the
reasons why it looks so juicy, especially now with wind
in our sails, you feel so much better about it.
One of the reasons we feel a little better going
forward is I tweeted it last night. A bunch of
people tweeted about it. Zion was warming up in Denver pregame.
We haven't seen that in a while. Now we should
(12:36):
say he was mostly doing sort of midrange jump shots
and whatnot, but at the end he did have a dunk.
The big thing is it's progress, and we don't want
to overstate it and be like he's coming back tomorrow,
like it's you know, a wrestling thing. He's just gonna
run out from behind a curtain. But you know, Zion
is getting closer. The fact that he's out there, that's
(12:57):
huge for us. Yeah, tan t seems to be very
up mystic that we're going to see him next week,
so we'll see how that plays out. I mean, it's
a It would be a massive boost for him to
be able to get back on the court. You can
plug him in and do the same thing that you're
doing with ionis Valancunists lately, which is, hey, here's the ball,
go to work and no one can stop you. And
I mean, oh, you've got another monster in the paint
(13:19):
to deal with. Right The plus that that could provide
is hard to even measure. So yeah, that would be
incredible for him to be back in the lineup and
on the court. The good thing is for now in
this next stretch of a couple games before he could
potentially return, I mean, the way that they're playing right
now is so encouraging. You know. Another thing I'll add
to in terms of the signs going into this homestand
(13:43):
if things go the way that we hope and expect
them to, where the Pelicans are in the postseason, they're
at least in the playing tournament, hopefully they get a playoff. Berth.
They've come up with some great road wins lately, and
we know that in April they're going to have to
pick up some wins on the road to go as
far as they possibly can so to have the road
trip that they had. They still have one road game
left in the regular season at Minnesota. That could be
(14:03):
a massive game in terms of if you look at
the upcoming scam, there's no five games left, there's five
games left. Yeah, when you look at the schedule, that
t Wolves game looks like it's the most likely to
be just an absolute dog fun right and especially standings wise,
you know exactly so to be able to win at
Denver the way that they did they won at the Clippers,
I think you have a lot more confidence about some
(14:25):
of these road games coming up. I mean, obviously we
only no one for sure that's locked in, but we
hope that there will be a bunch more after that. Yeah, absolutely,
And look, we did have a lot of fun, even
though it was a late one in the studio. Jim
was in there with me. It was a lonely one
in the Smoothie King Center because Gus Cat and Gal
and Aaron Summers they were out having a fun time
at the Wrong Arm Watch party. But while it was fresh,
(14:48):
Jim joined me and we talked about the Denver win.
While we were still feeling ourselves a little bit, and
let's listen in to a little bit. Yeah, bi second
career triple double. His first career triple double was only
a couple hundred feet from where we're sitting right now
(15:10):
on the court out here last Thursday against Charlotte, So
I mean tremendous. What a stretch that he's had over
the last bunch of games. Been one of the best
players in the NBA. I would say, I mean Western
Conference Player of the Week, and I feel like he's
making a bit at trying to get that award again.
In the second week in a row. CJ, like you said,
he had six three pointers in the second half. He
was very quiet and the first half had two points
(15:32):
one to four shooting. But then he just went off
in the third quarter with four straight three pointers. No
look to CJ left wing three heat check Christian James
McCollum three for three from three in the quarter for
the third to five bucketgether. Yes, Christian James McCollum, I
(15:52):
mean just in hand PRESSIP. I'm James Christian. By the way,
I don't know if that's just kind of an obuen
stayed up late enough to know now you know I
have a similar three point shooting ability as c J.
Yeah you yeah, yeah, exactly humble, but yeah it was.
It was a great second half by him. Um. You
(16:13):
know you mentioned how coming off the Golden State game
the other night, I mean, you're back within a game
of Golden State right now, right, I was about to say,
I mean, I know, this feels like a huge win
just because of it's a it's a it's on T
and t uh. It's a big you know, on the
road against Look, even though they don't have the Joker,
it's still the Denver Nuggets. It just had a weight
(16:34):
to it, it really did. But it has tangible consequences.
Clippers are coming here Saturday night to the Smoothe King Center.
So now either the Clippers are playing at Memphis tomorrow,
so we're gonna ask people to do something that we
would normally not ask them to do, and that is
root for the Grizzlies. You know, I kind of am
just because of the Draymond stuff and Dylan Brooks just
yea a part of me. It feels dirty, but just yeah, no,
(16:58):
you don't feel dirty at all. Runey for Brooks tomorrow
night because that will be very beneficial. I think overall,
if you want to take a step back and look
at the big picture, the best news from tonight, beyond
the fact that they won a huge game, was that
you're coming back home for four games, and the way
the Pelicans have played in the Smoothie King Center pretty
much all season. They might have had one stretch in
(17:19):
say January early February, where they were losing games, and
that was part of the long losing streak overall that
they had, but other than that, I felt really confident
and good about almost every game that they've played here
all season, almost regardless of the opponent. There's been a
couple of teams where that have come in here, like
I remember Boston in November and he said, man that
this team, maybe Boston's a little bit higher level than
(17:39):
the Pelicans, But for the most part, they've been in
every single game, And like I said, if you look
at the record at home, you feel really good about
their chances of winning special their sales. Now. I mean,
they're coming in here a momentum, and I feel like
I can't I can't remember another time where they rolled
in here with more momentum and with more consequential games
on the slate than year. It's gonna be huge, man.
(18:01):
And I think the biggest thing when you talk about
identity is they've been so much better defensively lately than
they were in the previous stretch. It seems like tonight
was probably the best example over the last few weeks
of you play defense like that and the other team
isn't going to be able to put together any big runs.
So you feel a lot more confident when you have
a double digit lead when the other team is never
(18:22):
putting together even three or four good offensive possessions in
a row. So I'd say that's probably the biggest thing
that we would love to see carry over into these
next four home games, is if they can play defense
like that. I mean, they had a stretch where the
Pelicans offense was so poor that if the other team
got to one hundred and ten hundred fifteen points, they
were having a really hard time staying in games. But
(18:43):
now they're keeping some of these opposing teams down to
one hundred or less or one hundred and five points,
and I mean they have a really good The offense
for the Pelicans has come up now so looking good. Yeah,
has been looking good. Everyone's just coming together when we
need them. The bost right, So you add all those
you had those things together, and I mean that's why
they're winning a lot more games. The defense has just
(19:03):
been kind of the foundation the rock lately. Well. You know,
we call you an oracle for a reason because you
are correct pretty much all the time, and we've talked
about it on the podcast almost breathlessly. You do not
want to see this Pelicans team healthy and man, your
prediction once again comes true, you know, as other teams
(19:24):
are getting worn down, their spirits sort of breaking, it
seems ours is lifting up and Zion is looking all right. Man,
I didn't believe you when you looked into your orb,
but I should have it. Jim, I'm sorry. It's very
hard for me to keep a straight face and keep
my concentration with this music playing. Yeah, usually I added
(19:44):
it after, but no, no, you're right. I mean things
are really looking up right now. And the best part
about my predictions is that when I make one that's
totally wrong, I just never bring it up again. And
yeah what pretty people just forget about it. So yeah, yeah,
I had I had one that was a little off
about um, in January. What yeah, Zion, we're both out
in terms of how they how competitive they were going
(20:06):
to be. But that's okay, that's all right. Nobody remembers that. No,
I feel like we're so fired up right now. We
should just record the podcast right now. I mean, I
would I kind doing at like one am. Yeah, heck,
I'm not gonna lie. This is gonna end up on
the podcast tomorrow, but I wanted to talk about it
while it was fresh. Jim, thanks for hanging out with
this old dog in the lonely, lonely Smoothie King Center.
(20:28):
It's a cold night in the bowels of this arena,
all by my lonesome, and I could just hear you
furiously hammering away, just typing. It kept me up. I appreciate. Well,
it was great to be here, Joe, Yeah, it was.
It's a little it's very low attendance in the arena
tonight compared to a home game, I think, attendance of two.
But it was it was a fun night to be
(20:50):
able to pick up a win like that, and it
was I mean, that was the kind of win that
maybe hopefully we'll look back at in a week or
so and say, boy, that was a massive win to
get them into a higher seat. Absolutely. I just wish
there are more people to hug and dance with, but
Jim and I will do it ourselves. That's fine. Oh man,
(21:10):
that was a fun When I feel like a walking
corpse today, I am just completely zombified from this week.
I am mumbling incoherently. But we are ready. Now, we
are into the final five, Jim. But before we get
to our own five games, there's so many other games
being played. As we said, the West is fluid because
(21:31):
of a lot of things we can't control. The scoreboard
is gonna be being watched. No one's watching it with
more of an eagle eye than our own, mister Jim. Yes,
I have my magnifying glass out. I'm totally examining everything
in every detail, every fine point. He walks around with
a jeweler's eyeps, just examining people. It's crazy. You know,
(21:52):
it's funny about Friday, And I mean, you make a
good point as far as it's funny. The way the
schedule is this weekend where the Pelicans play Saturday, but
the only one of two games across the entire league
because of the Final four taking place Saturday. The NBA
usually does it that way. But because of that, like
almost the entire league is playing Friday, and the almost
the entire league is playing on Sunday, the Pelicans are
(22:13):
not playing on Sunday. So if you're a fan out there,
both Friday and Sunday are going to be really fun
when the Pelicans are off, to be able to just
see some of the outcomes of other games, watch some scores. Yeah,
but I'll tell you what, for Friday, there are so
many games that are relevant. I almost feel like I
can make power rankings of the games to watch, and
so number one on my Friday power rankings, they do
(22:35):
they really do. The Lakers versus Timberwolves at seven o'clock. Unfortunately,
the winner of that game is going to move at
least temporarily ahead of the Pelicans and the standings, so
the Pelicans will be eighth after the outcome of that game.
But that's okay because the Pelicans can do something about
that on Saturday when they play the Clippers. Yeah, so
that's number one. I think that's definitely. I don't think
(22:56):
i'd get too many arguments that that's the game that
most people are going to be all the comments would
still be trash. If it's a power ranking that's true,
that's true, there would be people that would dispute the
heck out of it. I think second is Clippers Grizzlies
at seven o'clock. The Grizzlies are two games ahead of
the Pelicans. So the key there is the Clippers lose
that game and you're you're now you're one and a
(23:18):
half behind them. You play them head to head, have
a chance to pull within a half game of them.
Clippers are fifth right now as we speak Friday morning
in the West, So that's one of the teams that
you have to target besides Golden State, as can we
bump those guys out of the top six move ourselves
into the top six, So that's key as well. Third,
and I'll stop at three out of the six games
in terms of my power rankings because I don't want
(23:39):
to get too much of the haters coming out there
and disputing my power rankings. You've always got, yeah, I
think third, I will put Utah at Boston. No, actually,
excuse me, Oklahoma City at Indiana only because Oklahoma City
is right kind of on the doorstep of the Pelicans.
They're one game behind them. The good news is that
(24:00):
one game is kind of two games because the Pelicans
have the tiebreaker against the Thunder, so we wouldn't mind
actually if the Thunder are part of a multi team
tie because that brings in the Pelicans three and one
record against them. That's helpful. So but but yeah, that's
also a key game. And then just didn't make my
power rankings. But other games that are happening tonight that
are important. Utah is at Boston at six thirty. Utah
(24:24):
is thirty six and forty. Pelicans are starting to create
a little separation from them, and that's a very tough game,
as people know, for them to have to play in
TD Garden. And then lastly, Denver at Phoenix. Phoenix has
a little bit of a gap on the Pelicans. It
would take the Sun's losing multiple games I think for
them to become part of the equation. But nonetheless that's
(24:46):
another one. And then lastly, only because I feel like
the Spurs have not been very competitive. San Antonio at
Golden State nine o'clock, and that wraps up the scoreboard.
It's a long list of games, and so you can
turn on your TV at six o'clock and then follow
all the way through the until the Denver Phoenix game
starts at nine thirty and ends at midnight. I don't
(25:07):
know if people still want to stay up again for
another night this week, but if they're up to if
they if they're up to the challenge, there's a lot
of basketball and a lot of scores, and then Saturday morning,
I will be back on Pelicans dot Com breaking it
all down, have a preview of the Clippers game, and uh,
this is gonna be a great weekend though. I'm really
looking forward to it. You know, the people are gonna
(25:28):
be up on Saturday morning like as Christmas morning, waiting
for your breakdown. I know, because I know I do.
And uh man, you know that that is a hell
of a of a scoreboard. Watch a Jim scoreboard, Watch
a jor board. Watch I'm so tired, Jim. Yeah, we're
gonna have to work on that one. But you know
you talked about it. That's so much happening. And then
(25:49):
we have our own final five, which we have to
dedicate some time too, because that's enough. Our next four games,
right are gonna be seven pm home games? Oh oh,
thank yeah, so that's actually breaking news. Well, it's actually
it's actually not really breaking news. It's been the case
all season. But Saturday's games at seven thirty. Oh. But
(26:11):
you know, if you if you show up a half
hour earlier, that's fine too. You know, if you want to,
if you want to get a little extra prep time in,
that's cool. But Saturday's at seven thirty. The other ones
are at seven Saturday. True, So you know, still four
games at home. I'll take it. And so you are
facing first of all, you're gonna be facing the Clippers.
No Paul George possibly no cool? Why? Yes? And in fact,
(26:32):
you know, I just looked at the injury report that
the Clippers put in for the game against Memphis that
they're playing tonight, and he's quiet list is questionable for
personal reasons. Now, the reason I checked to the injury
report was because I wanted to see maybe if he
was available, and it's not necessarily negative he plays tonight
in terms of Saturday, because he has not played in
back to backs. So I don't know. We're gonna have
(26:53):
to see how that plays out as far as whether
he actually does play against Memphis and whether the issue
that has him not necessary early available against the Grizzlies
also keeps him out of the game Saturday. We'll have
to wait and see, but I mean it's possible that
he doesn't play Saturday. One way the other will have
to find that out. But yeah, it's a huge game
and it's the Clippers. I mentioned it during my interminable
(27:14):
scoreboard watch of why that game matters and why you
know how significant it could be, especially if the Clippers
lose to the Grizzlies on Friday. So that's a that's
a huge one. I mean, you could argue that, I
think it's a strong argument that that's the most important
game of the flour on the homestand and there's so
many things because the Grizzlies basically have their their seating
locked up, you know, and then so the Clippers are
(27:36):
facing that situation in terms of their health. And then
the Clippers are gonna be facing us on a back
to back. Also when we face the Grizzlies, they're gonna
be coming off a back to back, so that helps
us a little bit, you would hope, plus their playoff
seating being locked in. But first before we face those
those Grizzlies, we face the Kings again. Their playoff spot
(28:00):
is locked in. It seems like they wouldn't have that
much to play for it. It's it's a very interesting
thing that they play. The Pelicans play Sacramento in Memphis
Tuesday Wednesday, back to back at home, because as you mentioned,
it's possible that both of those teams will be almost
officially mathematically like this is our seating. And even if
it's not, I don't know if they're necessarily going to
(28:21):
They're definitely not going to look at it as like
a make or breakdo or die game. I don't know
if we're going to start to see some resting from
some of those guys. But it is funny. You know,
people have talked a lot about how the Pelicans have
a very brutal schedule remaining, but there are insinuating extenuations,
circumstances you need to know. Yes, that was based on
like opponent winning percentage, etc. But the the other sort
(28:44):
of underlying non statistical things that are going on make
it much more interesting and much more feasible to go
on a big wind streak and respondal five. And as
we sit here Friday morning and this is this could change.
But I mean, memphisis two games ahead of Sacramento for
that second and third spot. So I mean, especially if
the Grizzlies are able to increase that gap a little bit,
(29:05):
and then both teams are like, Okay, we know for
sure as Memphis that we're gonna be the two seed.
We know for sure a Sacramento, we're gonna be the
three seeds by the time we get to Tuesday and Wednesday.
Like we said, I think the motivation will decrease from
their standpoint, which could potentially be helpful. We know both
of those teams are capable of King's beat the Pelicans
without the Aaron Fox in the game that was in Sacramento.
(29:26):
Memphis has won a ton of games the last couple
of years when John Morant was out for various reasons. So, um,
it's not like those are by any means. Am I
sitting here saying like oh yeah, no, yeah, but um,
but none of these road stretch wins were either. I mean,
you looked at this road stretch like ooh. And I
think a lot of the reason that that you look
at this stretch, especially with the circumstances we're naming as
(29:49):
juicy matchups now, is because you dominated the Denver Nuggets
without you you played very well basically this whole stretch,
you were seeing a consistent team. So now when you
see these extenuating circumstances, with all these teams coming to
our house, none of it looks as scary anymore. And
the Pelicans are twenty four and thirteen at home, and
(30:11):
if they play even eighty percent of what they've been
playing lately, you combine that with being on your home floor,
and I think the crowds are going to be very
pumped up for some of these games. We're talking about
opponents that people don't have a lot of love for
in terms of the Clippers, and every day means something.
The blender is going to be crazy. Yeah, So I
think you add all that stuff together and you know,
(30:32):
hopefully they can win three or four of these games.
And if they are able to do that, you're talking
a big jump in the standings. Yes, absolutely, Because you
face the Kings the Grizzlies, like you said, both playoff
spots sort of locked in at that point, you don't
know how they're gonna play. Then you face the New
York Knicks with as we just found out, no Julius
randall right, So that's gonna make a big difference for
(30:53):
that Knicks team and another team too that I mean,
there's a very good chance I'm gonna go out on
a limb here and make a Jim prediction, Jim Drich
Jim so that by Friday night, the Knicks are going
to be the five seed in the East. Yeah. So,
I mean they're only gonna have two games. The Pelicans
also only have two games left in their season by then.
I mean, they're definitely in a position where they're gonna be.
(31:14):
They probably are going to even have their playoff opponent
seated in by then. So I think that's definitely gonna be.
We won't see probably what we what the Knicks have
been putting on the floor throughout the course of this season,
and then you wrap it up with what we we
sort of predicted earlier is going to be the dog
fight game because based on seating, based on talent, you know,
you face the Timberwolves. So that's gonna be how you
(31:36):
round it out. Now, the Timberwolves just lost nas Reid,
who he's been he's been having a I guess the
best season of his career so far looked like and
also Todd Graffanini has called him a Pelican killer, So
the Timberwolves are gonna be without him. We're gonna see
how much of a difference that makes moving forward. But
again another extenuating circumstance where you can look at this
(31:59):
fine five and go, there's there's a chance the Pelicans
could take that one too. Yeah, Reid has been we
know he's an LSU guy. Reid has been an everyone
killer lately in addition to Pelican Killer. I mean, he's
been playing so well. It was cool to see a
guy that was, you know, not a high draft pick
emerged the way that he has been lately. So it's
unfortunate to see the injury happen, and I mean it's
(32:20):
just been kind of devastating to the West overall. Just
I mean, the Pelicans know the effect the injuries have
had this season on the race, but like you said,
I mean that has the I'm so interested to see
how this week unfolds, coming up to see what the
repercussions and implications of that Sunday afternoon game at two
thirty r at Minnesota, because it's just like there's so
(32:42):
many possibilities. It could be the game that both teams,
one of them gets the top six, the other one
doesn't and has to go to plan. It could be massive,
you know, implications as far as you know in implication
in the yes, in the playing tournament. You hope at
this point that it's not going to be, you know,
the team, one of the teams that loses this game
could be out of the playing tournament overall. No, I
(33:04):
guess I wouldn't be sad if if we said, you know,
if Minnesota loses this game, they're not in the playing
tournament boo. But nonetheless, the way things are shaping up,
it's definitely going to be in some form a game
that everybody around the league is going to want to
tune into. Now, it's interesting, every team in the Western
Conference except for one is playing at two thirty on
(33:24):
that Sunday, So you're you're gonna have to pick which one.
If you're an NBA fan, you're gonna have to pick
which one you want to watch. You're not gonna be
able to watch all of them. But I think there's
a good chance that a lot of people are gonna
say this Pelicans Timberwolves game is at the top of
my list on It's number one on my power rankings
as far as which game to watch, a man, it
is gonna be a mad dash down the stretch. And
you know, we've we've had so many seasons where at
(33:46):
this point we were sort of like, oh gosh, what
is it going to end? Because we were out of it,
and I think, you know, just a short time ago,
I don't know that our confidence levels were anywhere near
what they are now. And I don't know that rounding
into the stretch we could be at a better place,
because as low as we were not that long ago,
I don't know that we could have predicted we'd be
feeling this good at this point. Yeah, no, Joe, You're
(34:08):
so right. In the past, I mean, there was so
many times where I felt like, at this point of
the season that we were kind of the kid that
was not invited to the party. Everyone else is having fun,
everyone else breaking down the different possibilities of playoffs, and
we were just kind of, you know, we don't have
a few games left and then it's over. But now,
I mean, I live for this. I live for the
(34:29):
position that the Pelicans are in right now. It's just
so much fun every day to look at the other
games and look at the standings and We're overdue for
this kind of happy, this kind of fun at the
end of a season. So nice to see a boolliant gym. Yeah,
at the end of a season. It's funny too, because
I always said too for a long stretch in the
(34:50):
previous you know, however, many years it wasn't just that
the Pelicans made the playoffs only a couple of times,
but it was in the season that they didn't make it.
They were really weren't often or ever in the hunt
going into the last week of the season. So this
is so much better and I'm absolutely just enjoying this.
It's a different Pelicans team, watching the Pelicans get national respect.
(35:11):
Like you know, so many people used to openly joke about,
oh the Pelicans are a team. What the Pelicans, And
now you see people having to take us into account
and that to have that as our identity going forward,
it's something you could be proud of. And I think,
no matter what happens, I feel proud of this Pelicans
team right now, and I'm so happy that we are
(35:31):
going into this final five with our heads up high,
as tired as we are, and we can really make
some Hey Jimothy Man, thanks for being my rock. You
know you kept me awake last night, ever smacking me,
spraying me the water bottle when I was falling asleep,
and man, you powered me through today. Appreciate you. Man.
I tried. I tried to do the best I could.
(35:53):
I think it's a lot easier to keep grinding at
one am one when the winds are coming the way
that they have been laid at least, so let's just
keep that going. Let's have a lot of postgame fun,
but let's have it at ten pm ten thirty, not
one am two am. Hashtag keep grinding but reasonably. Thank
you for listening to the Pelicans podcast. Thanks for staying up.
(36:15):
If you listen to the radio broadcast, those were local
exclusives as they were on TNT, so thank you if
you check them out and stayed up with us. We
will talk to you once again on Monday. We are
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get your podcasts until Monday. Thanks for listening to the
(36:47):
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(37:09):
Thank you,
Welcome into the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast presented by Seat Geeg,
a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about
the squad and from the rebound. Know What the c
J Left Wing three Heat, Jack Christian James McCollum, three
for three Front three in the quarter for the thirty
(00:25):
five bucketgether. Yeah, you're right. The New Orleans Pelicans podcast
starts right now. Oh, Welcome to the Pelicans Podcast. I
am Joe Cardosi, joined by the cock Shore Jim Ikenhoffer.
We are the Pelicans Podcast presented by Seat Geek, and
(00:48):
I don't think we could be any more jazz today.
I don't know if it's the lack of sleep in
the crazy delirium i'm feeling from just a whole week
of it. I don't know if it's the big win.
I don't know if it's just seeing your smiling face,
but I'm feeling dazzled today. I'm feeling dazzled as well.
I feel like I'm sure neither of us got a
ton of sleep last night, but it doesn't even matter
(01:09):
because we're here before ten am recording this. And I
know I was still tweeting at one thirty last night,
so I don't know how sad the math, yeah, something,
I'm fired up. I mean that was a great win
last night for a bunch of different reasons. To be
able to finish the road trip three and one. I
know there was definitely some concern going into it, and
(01:30):
people might have said, you know, hey, can you at
least go two and two? You know, am, maybe one
and three might be tough because of the competition, but man,
they picked a really good time to play some of
their best basketball of the season. Yes, especially you know,
as deflating as that Golden State loss was, especially because
the Pelicans it seemed like had it in hand. I
(01:52):
feel like this routing of the Denver Nuggets shorthanded quote
unquote with no yokik Uh sort of takes a lot
of that, you know, the muck off of that one.
You know, I feel much better about, you know, sort
of letting one slip away against one of the best
teams at home in the NBA. I think it's easy.
I don't want to say forget the Golden State game,
(02:12):
but it's easy to move past it. It's easy to
go back in your head of like, you know, that
was tough. The way that the game went, But I
mean you bounce back two days later and hold the
Nuggets to eighty eight points. Yes, they didn't have Yokitch,
but the Pelicans are also missing a certain all star that, uh,
I think is also important. Exactly. Yes, It's like people
people are saying that, oh, the no yok it makes
(02:33):
a huge difference. Yeah, it doesn't, It doesn't it. You know,
we we've been getting no credit for Zion being out.
People just sort of seem to forget that. But yeah,
it makes a huge difference in how a team operates.
We saw that with Denver last night. And you know,
another thing that we talked about last night on the
postgame show, which went into the wee hours, was you
(02:54):
know what it means for the Pells just just basically
in terms of the momentum, the the carryover from game
to game. A big problem we had with the Pelicans
performances not that long ago was that they would have
a great performance against one team and then just come
out flat or operate well in one area and then
just not be able to carry it over game to game. Now,
(03:16):
it seems like consistently, even with the Golden State loss,
you're seeing the Pelicans assert themselves, play the game, they
want to play it, and they are having no problem scoring. Now, yeah,
I think two things. One you just mentioned. I mean,
for a long stretch from January through March, the Pelicans
were one of the struggling offensive teams in the league,
maybe top or bottom five, bottom eight offense during that
(03:40):
long stretch. But lately that part of the floor has
been so much better. You're getting night in and night out,
You're getting a ton of productivity. You're getting Brandon Ingram
playing maybe the best basketball of his career. He has
two triple doubles over the last seven days. Two thursdays
in a row he came up with a triple double.
Second career triple double, right. And you know, also, I
(04:00):
gotta say props to Kingdram his thirty one points, eleven rebounds,
tenn assists. Only two players in franchise history with multiple
thirty point glaims, ten rebounds, ten assist games. That's a
BI and CP three. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. And so
you pair what he's been doing to lead the offense
with the defense has been so to me. The defense
(04:21):
is the foundation of why when you bring up consistency
and why they've been able to not have dips from
night to night and be able to string together a
bunch of wins. I know, no yokick, but look at
that score, one oh seven eighty eight right to the
number one seeded Denver Nuggets. And that's the third time
in the last five games that the Pelicans have held
(04:42):
the other team under one hundred points. As we know
in today's NBA, where everyone's shooting three pointers like it's
going out of style, and everyone's putting up points easily.
I mean, we're seeing one hundred and twenty points. Maybe
five years ago used to be like, well that's a
huge night, and now we see it happen all the time.
Go on. So if you hold Charlotte to ninety six,
you hold Land Okay, maybe that's not as impressive with
who their home fielding. Yes, you held them to ninety points,
(05:05):
you hold Denver to eighty eight, And I thought that
was the best defensive performance that the Pelicans have had
in a long time now. Denver definitely missed a bunch
of shots, and that was something that Willie Green talked
about after the game, was that they did have some
open looks that they didn't make. But if you look
at even with Yokich not on the court, if you
look at some of the weapons that they have with
Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Junior, some of their reserves are
(05:28):
pretty dangerous. I mean, it was it was a huge
plus to be able to hold them down the way
the Pelicans did. Murray had twenty one but Porter only
had ten. Aaron Gordon had eleven points one of the
other starters, so it was I think Christian Brown had
some good moments off the bench for them, and Bruce
Brown had a pretty good game as well with nineteen points.
(05:49):
But other than that, I mean, it was just it
was great stuff that the Pelicans did defensively. They had
Nuggets had two quarters under twenty points, so I mean,
just awesome start to the game and awesome the game defensive.
And we should also mention that Herb is doing all
this defensively with basically one eye. He was out there
with a mouse under his eye from Eric our pal
(06:10):
throwing an elbow at him and you know, still gutting
through it and operating well. Also, big props to our
friend Trey Murphy. He has the most threes in a
month in team history, his fifty eighth. There made it
in March, the most threes in team history. It seems
like this team is just putting themselves up in a
(06:30):
hollowed company records later, they are just operating great. Another
thing I love to see was Willie Green and Jonas
that T and T audio where he was like, hey, man,
you get one more pump fake one more and if
it works, maybe you get another one. It was nice
to see Willie Green in a good mood, feeling loose,
because I know that man has been feeling some pressure lately. Yeah.
(06:51):
I mean those two players that you mentioned. I mean
I talked about Ingraham his triple double, the way that
he's led the offense, the way that the offense has
reached a different level I mean over the same period
lately of a couple of weeks, the fact that the
Pelicans have gotten the ball to Jonnis Valentine is so
consistently and been able to lean on him to take
over stretches of games where he'll score eight points in
(07:12):
a few minutes and um just kind of set double
in the first quarter right right away. Yeah, he's been
so good. And Trey Murphy, I mean, we talk about
consistency every game since March twelfth he's made at least
three pointers, except for the game at Portland where he
was won for seven. Didn't need him to make a
lot of threes that game because bus Driver the number
(07:35):
one store exactly. Yeah, they only needed one for seven
from three point range from trade to win that game
by thirty four points. So we'll we'll give him a
pass on that one. But sure, it's pretty impressive the
fact that over the last ten games he's made at
least three three pointers in every single night. So and
even going back before that, he had a stretch where
he made three plus three pointers in almost every game. So,
(07:57):
I mean it's been since really the beginning of March.
I mean you mentioned how he set the franchise record
for most three pointers made. Now that March is over, yeah,
I mean the very start of March. He had three
threes at Portland when Portland was not using a bus
driver and their rotation back when they're still legitimate, three
threes at Golden State, and four at Sacramento on that
(08:18):
that same road trip. So I mean, he's been he's
been so good. He's been one of the best three
point shooters in the NBA over these last few weeks,
and it's evidenced by the fact that, you know, this
franchise has had some great, great three point shooters pages
Soyakovich for for one, and he still made more threes
than anyone ever has in a month. Yeah, I mean
that that's crazy to mention when you talk about the
three point shooters we've had here. You know, Trey Murphy
(08:40):
just absolutely shooting the cover off the ball. It shows
you why he was so untouchable and some of those
trade talks. You know, I do want to get to uh,
you know what it means this game, you know, we
it's a big win. Of course, it felt good to
beat the Denver Nuggets in their own house, especially when
you know, you looked at that schedule and then a
lot of people were saying, man, we could lose all
that whole stretch. Then you go three and one. I
(09:03):
think that feels pretty good, especially with the way you
played most of that Warriors game. So, you know, big
picture though, what does this mean for the Pells in
terms of standings? We did jump up. We were sitting
ninth as that game began, jumped up to seven. I know,
there's a lot of stuff still shaken out in the West.
But this one helped us a lot, it really, I mean,
this was immense to be able to pick up this
(09:23):
win was so huge as far as the position that
they're in. Really, if they had lost that game, they
would have been in ninth place going into Friday's games,
and then you'd have the potential for some of the
teams below them to make up some ground on the weekend. Okay,
see for example, plays in Indiana Friday that on paper,
you would think they would get that win even though
they did just lose to Charlotte and barely be Detroit.
(09:43):
But nonetheless, going back to specifically what it means for
New Orleans, I mean, for one thing, you know, we
were talking about this in the pregame radio show last night,
and I think mister Gus Katt and Gill made fun
of me a little bit, but by saying that he
was like, Jim's already given magic numbers, and I was like,
I was like, Gus, it's only five. So the magic
number now is only four because of the win last night.
(10:05):
So I did think that maybe going back a few days,
it was a little too early to get into magic number.
You don't want to say, hey, the magic number is fourteen,
and people are like, fourteen, Come on, that's ridiculous, But
now that it's four I think it is something that
we can really look at. So basically, if the Pelicans
win four more games the rest of the season, they're
in the play in tournament no matter what. But that
number can also be reduced by Utah and Dallas losses
(10:28):
as well, so the starting from that, Dallas losses look
more and more like, yes, they just seem like they
are crumbling right, And they play Miami and Atlanta both
on the road this weekend, So I'm sure we're going
to get into maybe more of the schedule and the
specifics and the scoreboard watching later, But from a Pelican standpoint,
they are getting closer and closer to clinching the play
(10:50):
in tournament birth, which to me is step one of
what we're looking at. But on the other end of
the spectrum in terms of the standings, they're back within
one game of Golden State. Now who's in sixth place.
I remember when after the Lakers loss in early March,
a lot of people are looking around and acting like
that clinch the Lakers, we're going to finish ahead of
the Pelicans and there was. That was the end of
(11:10):
the story, end of debate forgetting that. Yeah, and after
Tuesday's lost to Golden State, I think it was easy
to be like, Okay, this loss means the Pelicans can't
catch gold State. It's over blah blah blah. Only the Pelicans,
like I said, are only one game behind gold State.
Golden State is in that last spot where he feel
like we got a little something extra for them now
to Yeah, for sure, and the Pelicans have the tiebreaker
(11:31):
as well, so they're going to need a little bit
of help. But I do think that what Thursday's win
over Denver did, going back to your point and your question,
is it put them back into the conversation as far
as you know, it's not. They're not that far out
of sixth place. If they have a great homestand they can,
that's doable as well. So just across the board, I
(11:52):
mean it was. It was a massive win. I know
a lot of people looked at it on paper like
you're playing Denver on the road. That's probably chopped that
up as a law if you're trying to fill out
your I mean, when you look at those four games,
you know, honestly, if I expected to split it fifty fifty.
If if I was going to say it and I
was looking at Golden State Denver, you know, okay, I
would not be shocked by those I hope we win them,
(12:15):
but that wouldn't that wouldn't shock me. So you look
at this homestand we're gonna get into their all the
reasons why it looks so juicy, especially now with wind
in our sails, you feel so much better about it.
One of the reasons we feel a little better going
forward is I tweeted it last night. A bunch of
people tweeted about it. Zion was warming up in Denver pregame.
We haven't seen that in a while. Now we should
(12:36):
say he was mostly doing sort of midrange jump shots
and whatnot, but at the end he did have a dunk.
The big thing is it's progress, and we don't want
to overstate it and be like he's coming back tomorrow,
like it's you know, a wrestling thing. He's just gonna
run out from behind a curtain. But you know, Zion
is getting closer. The fact that he's out there, that's
(12:57):
huge for us. Yeah, tan t seems to be very
up mystic that we're going to see him next week,
so we'll see how that plays out. I mean, it's
a It would be a massive boost for him to
be able to get back on the court. You can
plug him in and do the same thing that you're
doing with ionis Valancunists lately, which is, hey, here's the ball,
go to work and no one can stop you. And
I mean, oh, you've got another monster in the paint
(13:19):
to deal with. Right The plus that that could provide
is hard to even measure. So yeah, that would be
incredible for him to be back in the lineup and
on the court. The good thing is for now in
this next stretch of a couple games before he could
potentially return, I mean, the way that they're playing right
now is so encouraging. You know. Another thing I'll add
to in terms of the signs going into this homestand
(13:43):
if things go the way that we hope and expect
them to, where the Pelicans are in the postseason, they're
at least in the playing tournament, hopefully they get a playoff. Berth.
They've come up with some great road wins lately, and
we know that in April they're going to have to
pick up some wins on the road to go as
far as they possibly can so to have the road
trip that they had. They still have one road game
left in the regular season at Minnesota. That could be
(14:03):
a massive game in terms of if you look at
the upcoming scam, there's no five games left, there's five
games left. Yeah, when you look at the schedule, that
t Wolves game looks like it's the most likely to
be just an absolute dog fun right and especially standings wise,
you know exactly so to be able to win at
Denver the way that they did they won at the Clippers,
I think you have a lot more confidence about some
(14:25):
of these road games coming up. I mean, obviously we
only no one for sure that's locked in, but we
hope that there will be a bunch more after that. Yeah, absolutely,
And look, we did have a lot of fun, even
though it was a late one in the studio. Jim
was in there with me. It was a lonely one
in the Smoothie King Center because Gus Cat and Gal
and Aaron Summers they were out having a fun time
at the Wrong Arm Watch party. But while it was fresh,
(14:48):
Jim joined me and we talked about the Denver win.
While we were still feeling ourselves a little bit, and
let's listen in to a little bit. Yeah, bi second
career triple double. His first career triple double was only
a couple hundred feet from where we're sitting right now
(15:10):
on the court out here last Thursday against Charlotte, So
I mean tremendous. What a stretch that he's had over
the last bunch of games. Been one of the best
players in the NBA. I would say, I mean Western
Conference Player of the Week, and I feel like he's
making a bit at trying to get that award again.
In the second week in a row. CJ, like you said,
he had six three pointers in the second half. He
was very quiet and the first half had two points
(15:32):
one to four shooting. But then he just went off
in the third quarter with four straight three pointers. No
look to CJ left wing three heat check Christian James
McCollum three for three from three in the quarter for
the third to five bucketgether. Yes, Christian James McCollum, I
(15:52):
mean just in hand PRESSIP. I'm James Christian. By the way,
I don't know if that's just kind of an obuen
stayed up late enough to know now you know I
have a similar three point shooting ability as c J.
Yeah you yeah, yeah, exactly humble, but yeah it was.
It was a great second half by him. Um. You
(16:13):
know you mentioned how coming off the Golden State game
the other night, I mean, you're back within a game
of Golden State right now, right, I was about to say,
I mean, I know, this feels like a huge win
just because of it's a it's a it's on T
and t uh. It's a big you know, on the
road against Look, even though they don't have the Joker,
it's still the Denver Nuggets. It just had a weight
(16:34):
to it, it really did. But it has tangible consequences.
Clippers are coming here Saturday night to the Smoothe King Center.
So now either the Clippers are playing at Memphis tomorrow,
so we're gonna ask people to do something that we
would normally not ask them to do, and that is
root for the Grizzlies. You know, I kind of am
just because of the Draymond stuff and Dylan Brooks just
yea a part of me. It feels dirty, but just yeah, no,
(16:58):
you don't feel dirty at all. Runey for Brooks tomorrow
night because that will be very beneficial. I think overall,
if you want to take a step back and look
at the big picture, the best news from tonight, beyond
the fact that they won a huge game, was that
you're coming back home for four games, and the way
the Pelicans have played in the Smoothie King Center pretty
much all season. They might have had one stretch in
(17:19):
say January early February, where they were losing games, and
that was part of the long losing streak overall that
they had, but other than that, I felt really confident
and good about almost every game that they've played here
all season, almost regardless of the opponent. There's been a
couple of teams where that have come in here, like
I remember Boston in November and he said, man that
this team, maybe Boston's a little bit higher level than
(17:39):
the Pelicans, But for the most part, they've been in
every single game, And like I said, if you look
at the record at home, you feel really good about
their chances of winning special their sales. Now. I mean,
they're coming in here a momentum, and I feel like
I can't I can't remember another time where they rolled
in here with more momentum and with more consequential games
on the slate than year. It's gonna be huge, man.
(18:01):
And I think the biggest thing when you talk about
identity is they've been so much better defensively lately than
they were in the previous stretch. It seems like tonight
was probably the best example over the last few weeks
of you play defense like that and the other team
isn't going to be able to put together any big runs.
So you feel a lot more confident when you have
a double digit lead when the other team is never
(18:22):
putting together even three or four good offensive possessions in
a row. So I'd say that's probably the biggest thing
that we would love to see carry over into these
next four home games, is if they can play defense
like that. I mean, they had a stretch where the
Pelicans offense was so poor that if the other team
got to one hundred and ten hundred fifteen points, they
were having a really hard time staying in games. But
(18:43):
now they're keeping some of these opposing teams down to
one hundred or less or one hundred and five points,
and I mean they have a really good The offense
for the Pelicans has come up now so looking good. Yeah,
has been looking good. Everyone's just coming together when we
need them. The bost right, So you add all those
you had those things together, and I mean that's why
they're winning a lot more games. The defense has just
(19:03):
been kind of the foundation the rock lately. Well. You know,
we call you an oracle for a reason because you
are correct pretty much all the time, and we've talked
about it on the podcast almost breathlessly. You do not
want to see this Pelicans team healthy and man, your
prediction once again comes true, you know, as other teams
(19:24):
are getting worn down, their spirits sort of breaking, it
seems ours is lifting up and Zion is looking all right. Man,
I didn't believe you when you looked into your orb,
but I should have it. Jim, I'm sorry. It's very
hard for me to keep a straight face and keep
my concentration with this music playing. Yeah, usually I added
(19:44):
it after, but no, no, you're right. I mean things
are really looking up right now. And the best part
about my predictions is that when I make one that's
totally wrong, I just never bring it up again. And
yeah what pretty people just forget about it. So yeah, yeah,
I had I had one that was a little off
about um, in January. What yeah, Zion, we're both out
in terms of how they how competitive they were going
(20:06):
to be. But that's okay, that's all right. Nobody remembers that. No,
I feel like we're so fired up right now. We
should just record the podcast right now. I mean, I
would I kind doing at like one am. Yeah, heck,
I'm not gonna lie. This is gonna end up on
the podcast tomorrow, but I wanted to talk about it
while it was fresh. Jim, thanks for hanging out with
this old dog in the lonely, lonely Smoothie King Center.
(20:28):
It's a cold night in the bowels of this arena,
all by my lonesome, and I could just hear you
furiously hammering away, just typing. It kept me up. I appreciate. Well,
it was great to be here, Joe, Yeah, it was.
It's a little it's very low attendance in the arena
tonight compared to a home game, I think, attendance of two.
But it was it was a fun night to be
(20:50):
able to pick up a win like that, and it
was I mean, that was the kind of win that
maybe hopefully we'll look back at in a week or
so and say, boy, that was a massive win to
get them into a higher seat. Absolutely. I just wish
there are more people to hug and dance with, but
Jim and I will do it ourselves. That's fine. Oh man,
(21:10):
that was a fun When I feel like a walking
corpse today, I am just completely zombified from this week.
I am mumbling incoherently. But we are ready. Now, we
are into the final five, Jim. But before we get
to our own five games, there's so many other games
being played. As we said, the West is fluid because
(21:31):
of a lot of things we can't control. The scoreboard
is gonna be being watched. No one's watching it with
more of an eagle eye than our own, mister Jim. Yes,
I have my magnifying glass out. I'm totally examining everything
in every detail, every fine point. He walks around with
a jeweler's eyeps, just examining people. It's crazy. You know,
(21:52):
it's funny about Friday, And I mean, you make a
good point as far as it's funny. The way the
schedule is this weekend where the Pelicans play Saturday, but
the only one of two games across the entire league
because of the Final four taking place Saturday. The NBA
usually does it that way. But because of that, like
almost the entire league is playing Friday, and the almost
the entire league is playing on Sunday, the Pelicans are
(22:13):
not playing on Sunday. So if you're a fan out there,
both Friday and Sunday are going to be really fun
when the Pelicans are off, to be able to just
see some of the outcomes of other games, watch some scores. Yeah,
but I'll tell you what, for Friday, there are so
many games that are relevant. I almost feel like I
can make power rankings of the games to watch, and
so number one on my Friday power rankings, they do
(22:35):
they really do. The Lakers versus Timberwolves at seven o'clock. Unfortunately,
the winner of that game is going to move at
least temporarily ahead of the Pelicans and the standings, so
the Pelicans will be eighth after the outcome of that game.
But that's okay because the Pelicans can do something about
that on Saturday when they play the Clippers. Yeah, so
that's number one. I think that's definitely. I don't think
(22:56):
i'd get too many arguments that that's the game that
most people are going to be all the comments would
still be trash. If it's a power ranking that's true,
that's true, there would be people that would dispute the
heck out of it. I think second is Clippers Grizzlies
at seven o'clock. The Grizzlies are two games ahead of
the Pelicans. So the key there is the Clippers lose
that game and you're you're now you're one and a
(23:18):
half behind them. You play them head to head, have
a chance to pull within a half game of them.
Clippers are fifth right now as we speak Friday morning
in the West, So that's one of the teams that
you have to target besides Golden State, as can we
bump those guys out of the top six move ourselves
into the top six, So that's key as well. Third,
and I'll stop at three out of the six games
in terms of my power rankings because I don't want
(23:39):
to get too much of the haters coming out there
and disputing my power rankings. You've always got, yeah, I
think third, I will put Utah at Boston. No, actually,
excuse me, Oklahoma City at Indiana only because Oklahoma City
is right kind of on the doorstep of the Pelicans.
They're one game behind them. The good news is that
(24:00):
one game is kind of two games because the Pelicans
have the tiebreaker against the Thunder, so we wouldn't mind
actually if the Thunder are part of a multi team
tie because that brings in the Pelicans three and one
record against them. That's helpful. So but but yeah, that's
also a key game. And then just didn't make my
power rankings. But other games that are happening tonight that
are important. Utah is at Boston at six thirty. Utah
(24:24):
is thirty six and forty. Pelicans are starting to create
a little separation from them, and that's a very tough game,
as people know, for them to have to play in
TD Garden. And then lastly, Denver at Phoenix. Phoenix has
a little bit of a gap on the Pelicans. It
would take the Sun's losing multiple games I think for
them to become part of the equation. But nonetheless that's
(24:46):
another one. And then lastly, only because I feel like
the Spurs have not been very competitive. San Antonio at
Golden State nine o'clock, and that wraps up the scoreboard.
It's a long list of games, and so you can
turn on your TV at six o'clock and then follow
all the way through the until the Denver Phoenix game
starts at nine thirty and ends at midnight. I don't
(25:07):
know if people still want to stay up again for
another night this week, but if they're up to if
they if they're up to the challenge, there's a lot
of basketball and a lot of scores, and then Saturday morning,
I will be back on Pelicans dot Com breaking it
all down, have a preview of the Clippers game, and uh,
this is gonna be a great weekend though. I'm really
looking forward to it. You know, the people are gonna
(25:28):
be up on Saturday morning like as Christmas morning, waiting
for your breakdown. I know, because I know I do.
And uh man, you know that that is a hell
of a of a scoreboard. Watch a Jim scoreboard, Watch
a jor board. Watch I'm so tired, Jim. Yeah, we're
gonna have to work on that one. But you know
you talked about it. That's so much happening. And then
(25:49):
we have our own final five, which we have to
dedicate some time too, because that's enough. Our next four games,
right are gonna be seven pm home games? Oh oh,
thank yeah, so that's actually breaking news. Well, it's actually
it's actually not really breaking news. It's been the case
all season. But Saturday's games at seven thirty. Oh. But
(26:11):
you know, if you if you show up a half
hour earlier, that's fine too. You know, if you want to,
if you want to get a little extra prep time in,
that's cool. But Saturday's at seven thirty. The other ones
are at seven Saturday. True, So you know, still four
games at home. I'll take it. And so you are
facing first of all, you're gonna be facing the Clippers.
No Paul George possibly no cool? Why? Yes? And in fact,
(26:32):
you know, I just looked at the injury report that
the Clippers put in for the game against Memphis that
they're playing tonight, and he's quiet list is questionable for
personal reasons. Now, the reason I checked to the injury
report was because I wanted to see maybe if he
was available, and it's not necessarily negative he plays tonight
in terms of Saturday, because he has not played in
back to backs. So I don't know. We're gonna have
(26:53):
to see how that plays out as far as whether
he actually does play against Memphis and whether the issue
that has him not necessary early available against the Grizzlies
also keeps him out of the game Saturday. We'll have
to wait and see, but I mean it's possible that
he doesn't play Saturday. One way the other will have
to find that out. But yeah, it's a huge game
and it's the Clippers. I mentioned it during my interminable
(27:14):
scoreboard watch of why that game matters and why you
know how significant it could be, especially if the Clippers
lose to the Grizzlies on Friday. So that's a that's
a huge one. I mean, you could argue that, I
think it's a strong argument that that's the most important
game of the flour on the homestand and there's so
many things because the Grizzlies basically have their their seating
locked up, you know, and then so the Clippers are
(27:36):
facing that situation in terms of their health. And then
the Clippers are gonna be facing us on a back
to back. Also when we face the Grizzlies, they're gonna
be coming off a back to back, so that helps
us a little bit, you would hope, plus their playoff
seating being locked in. But first before we face those
those Grizzlies, we face the Kings again. Their playoff spot
(28:00):
is locked in. It seems like they wouldn't have that
much to play for it. It's it's a very interesting
thing that they play. The Pelicans play Sacramento in Memphis
Tuesday Wednesday, back to back at home, because as you mentioned,
it's possible that both of those teams will be almost
officially mathematically like this is our seating. And even if
it's not, I don't know if they're necessarily going to
(28:21):
They're definitely not going to look at it as like
a make or breakdo or die game. I don't know
if we're going to start to see some resting from
some of those guys. But it is funny. You know,
people have talked a lot about how the Pelicans have
a very brutal schedule remaining, but there are insinuating extenuations,
circumstances you need to know. Yes, that was based on
like opponent winning percentage, etc. But the the other sort
(28:44):
of underlying non statistical things that are going on make
it much more interesting and much more feasible to go
on a big wind streak and respondal five. And as
we sit here Friday morning and this is this could change.
But I mean, memphisis two games ahead of Sacramento for
that second and third spot. So I mean, especially if
the Grizzlies are able to increase that gap a little bit,
(29:05):
and then both teams are like, Okay, we know for
sure as Memphis that we're gonna be the two seed.
We know for sure a Sacramento, we're gonna be the
three seeds by the time we get to Tuesday and Wednesday.
Like we said, I think the motivation will decrease from
their standpoint, which could potentially be helpful. We know both
of those teams are capable of King's beat the Pelicans
without the Aaron Fox in the game that was in Sacramento.
(29:26):
Memphis has won a ton of games the last couple
of years when John Morant was out for various reasons. So, um,
it's not like those are by any means. Am I
sitting here saying like oh yeah, no, yeah, but um,
but none of these road stretch wins were either. I mean,
you looked at this road stretch like ooh. And I
think a lot of the reason that that you look
at this stretch, especially with the circumstances we're naming as
(29:49):
juicy matchups now, is because you dominated the Denver Nuggets
without you you played very well basically this whole stretch,
you were seeing a consistent team. So now when you
see these extenuating circumstances, with all these teams coming to
our house, none of it looks as scary anymore. And
the Pelicans are twenty four and thirteen at home, and
(30:11):
if they play even eighty percent of what they've been
playing lately, you combine that with being on your home floor,
and I think the crowds are going to be very
pumped up for some of these games. We're talking about
opponents that people don't have a lot of love for
in terms of the Clippers, and every day means something.
The blender is going to be crazy. Yeah, So I
think you add all that stuff together and you know,
(30:32):
hopefully they can win three or four of these games.
And if they are able to do that, you're talking
a big jump in the standings. Yes, absolutely, Because you
face the Kings the Grizzlies, like you said, both playoff
spots sort of locked in at that point, you don't
know how they're gonna play. Then you face the New
York Knicks with as we just found out, no Julius
randall right, So that's gonna make a big difference for
(30:53):
that Knicks team and another team too that I mean,
there's a very good chance I'm gonna go out on
a limb here and make a Jim prediction, Jim Drich
Jim so that by Friday night, the Knicks are going
to be the five seed in the East. Yeah. So,
I mean they're only gonna have two games. The Pelicans
also only have two games left in their season by then.
I mean, they're definitely in a position where they're gonna be.
(31:14):
They probably are going to even have their playoff opponent
seated in by then. So I think that's definitely gonna be.
We won't see probably what we what the Knicks have
been putting on the floor throughout the course of this season,
and then you wrap it up with what we we
sort of predicted earlier is going to be the dog
fight game because based on seating, based on talent, you know,
you face the Timberwolves. So that's gonna be how you
(31:36):
round it out. Now, the Timberwolves just lost nas Reid,
who he's been he's been having a I guess the
best season of his career so far looked like and
also Todd Graffanini has called him a Pelican killer, So
the Timberwolves are gonna be without him. We're gonna see
how much of a difference that makes moving forward. But
again another extenuating circumstance where you can look at this
(31:59):
fine five and go, there's there's a chance the Pelicans
could take that one too. Yeah, Reid has been we
know he's an LSU guy. Reid has been an everyone
killer lately in addition to Pelican Killer. I mean, he's
been playing so well. It was cool to see a
guy that was, you know, not a high draft pick
emerged the way that he has been lately. So it's
unfortunate to see the injury happen, and I mean it's
(32:20):
just been kind of devastating to the West overall. Just
I mean, the Pelicans know the effect the injuries have
had this season on the race, but like you said,
I mean that has the I'm so interested to see
how this week unfolds, coming up to see what the
repercussions and implications of that Sunday afternoon game at two
thirty r at Minnesota, because it's just like there's so
(32:42):
many possibilities. It could be the game that both teams,
one of them gets the top six, the other one
doesn't and has to go to plan. It could be massive,
you know, implications as far as you know in implication
in the yes, in the playing tournament. You hope at
this point that it's not going to be, you know,
the team, one of the teams that loses this game
could be out of the playing tournament overall. No, I
(33:04):
guess I wouldn't be sad if if we said, you know,
if Minnesota loses this game, they're not in the playing
tournament boo. But nonetheless, the way things are shaping up,
it's definitely going to be in some form a game
that everybody around the league is going to want to
tune into. Now, it's interesting, every team in the Western
Conference except for one is playing at two thirty on
(33:24):
that Sunday, So you're you're gonna have to pick which one.
If you're an NBA fan, you're gonna have to pick
which one you want to watch. You're not gonna be
able to watch all of them. But I think there's
a good chance that a lot of people are gonna
say this Pelicans Timberwolves game is at the top of
my list on It's number one on my power rankings
as far as which game to watch, a man, it
is gonna be a mad dash down the stretch. And
you know, we've we've had so many seasons where at
(33:46):
this point we were sort of like, oh gosh, what
is it going to end? Because we were out of it,
and I think, you know, just a short time ago,
I don't know that our confidence levels were anywhere near
what they are now. And I don't know that rounding
into the stretch we could be at a better place,
because as low as we were not that long ago,
I don't know that we could have predicted we'd be
feeling this good at this point. Yeah, no, Joe, You're
(34:08):
so right. In the past, I mean, there was so
many times where I felt like, at this point of
the season that we were kind of the kid that
was not invited to the party. Everyone else is having fun,
everyone else breaking down the different possibilities of playoffs, and
we were just kind of, you know, we don't have
a few games left and then it's over. But now,
I mean, I live for this. I live for the
(34:29):
position that the Pelicans are in right now. It's just
so much fun every day to look at the other
games and look at the standings and We're overdue for
this kind of happy, this kind of fun at the
end of a season. So nice to see a boolliant gym. Yeah,
at the end of a season. It's funny too, because
I always said too for a long stretch in the
(34:50):
previous you know, however, many years it wasn't just that
the Pelicans made the playoffs only a couple of times,
but it was in the season that they didn't make it.
They were really weren't often or ever in the hunt
going into the last week of the season. So this
is so much better and I'm absolutely just enjoying this.
It's a different Pelicans team, watching the Pelicans get national respect.
(35:11):
Like you know, so many people used to openly joke about,
oh the Pelicans are a team. What the Pelicans, And
now you see people having to take us into account
and that to have that as our identity going forward,
it's something you could be proud of. And I think,
no matter what happens, I feel proud of this Pelicans
team right now, and I'm so happy that we are
(35:31):
going into this final five with our heads up high,
as tired as we are, and we can really make
some Hey Jimothy Man, thanks for being my rock. You
know you kept me awake last night, ever smacking me,
spraying me the water bottle when I was falling asleep,
and man, you powered me through today. Appreciate you. Man.
I tried. I tried to do the best I could.
(35:53):
I think it's a lot easier to keep grinding at
one am one when the winds are coming the way
that they have been laid at least, so let's just
keep that going. Let's have a lot of postgame fun,
but let's have it at ten pm ten thirty, not
one am two am. Hashtag keep grinding but reasonably. Thank
you for listening to the Pelicans podcast. Thanks for staying up.
(36:15):
If you listen to the radio broadcast, those were local
exclusives as they were on TNT, so thank you if
you check them out and stayed up with us. We
will talk to you once again on Monday. We are
sponsored by SeatGeek. We are on Spotify, iTunes, everywhere you
get your podcasts until Monday. Thanks for listening to the
(36:47):
New Orleans Pelicans podcast presented by seat Geek. Join us
three times per week on Pelicans dot com, the Pelicans
mobile app, or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
Will see you next time right here on the New
Orleans Pelicans podcast presented by seat Gag Dyson for free.
(37:09):
Thank you,
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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