Stan Van Gundy pointed out Wednesday that over half of New Orleans’ minutes in 2020-21 have been logged by players age 23 or under, a statistic that illustrates the youth of a Pelicans roster led by a 20-year-old first-time All-Star and a 23-year-old whose All-Star debut came last year. One opportunity for New Orleans (15-21) to accelerate the development of that large contingent of youngsters could come this spring, with the Pelicans hoping to compete for a Western Conference postseason berth. Few NBA teams would benefit more from playing pressure-filled games in April and May than New Orleans, because three of its five starters have never appeared in a playoff game. Excluding JJ Redick, that’s also the case for every Pelicans reserve who has played at least 150 minutes this season.
With the NBA implementing a play-in tournament entering a regular season for the first time in league history, New Orleans remains within striking distance of 10th place in the West, just three games behind Memphis (16-16). But even based on the traditional format, the Pelicans are a mere four games back of eighth-place Dallas (18-16). Both the Grizzlies and Mavericks face a hectic second-half slate, due to having numerous games postponed. The Pelicans are essentially just one game “behind schedule,” playing 36 games, instead of the 37 they were supposed to have prior to the midseason break.
Asked after Wednesday’s first post-All-Star break practice about his team’s outlook on being in the race, point guard Lonzo Ball said, “Definitely. We still have a lot to play for. The season’s far from over – we all know that. I think the break was good for us. We know we have to move uphill in the second half, but we’re all ready for the challenge.”
Part of that challenge includes playing 36 games over a 66-day span, which fittingly begins with a back-to-back vs. Minnesota and Cleveland in the Smoothie King Center over the next 48 hours. Van Gundy noted that the Pelicans expect to only be able to practice a total of 11 more times during the final two-plus months of the campaign. New Orleans has eight back-to-backs between March 12 and May 10 and closes the regular season with eight road games out of its final 11 contests. As a result, the Pelicans will have to make improvements on the fly, without much prep time between games. Defensively, they must get considerably stingier, currently ranking 29th in efficiency.
“In a normal season, you usually get one good practice a week and then another practice somewhere,” Van Gundy said. “(This season), it’s not that. It’s figuring out how to work to solve the problems and get them better. Identifying the problems is pretty easy, to be honest. How do you get the repetition you need to build the habits? That’s the difficult part.”
New Orleans also must reverse its road performance from the first half, having gone 2-8 since a decent 3-4 start in away games. The Pelicans have a two-game series this month at Portland and also play at Denver twice in the second half, along with single games at top-four East teams Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Boston.
“I know we have to be mentally prepared for (it), as much as physically,” forward Brandon Ingram said of the second-half situation. “We have to be ready in every moment.”
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March 11, 2021 at 08:57AM
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Pelicans enter hectic second-half schedule needing to gain ground in West standings - Pelicans.com
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