Heading into Madison Square Garden riding a perfect record in the preseason, the New Orleans Pelicans are set to close the deal against the Knicks.
Tonight officially winds up what’s been an impressive preseason for the New Orleans Pelicans, who are playing guests to the New York Knicks tonight. After taking care of four straight opponents, the Pelicans look to finish perfect in the Big Apple.
With tonight being the final game of the preseason, both coaches are going to focus on getting good minutes from their starting bunches, which gives their primary teams a chance to feel the pull of a full game before the season tips next week.
While Zion Williamson will not take the floor, it’s going to be a big night for the other key starters.
Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram have something to prove with a new team. Jrue Holiday has been given the keys to the car for the New Orleans Pelicans. Derrick Favors has an expiring contract and wants to carve out a role for a future contender in New Orleans.
Alvin Gentry gets his chance to check out the bunch tonight, plus get to experiment with in-game lineups, while really getting to focus on his best ten players.
They will have to check the giants of New York, as the Knicks signed former Pelicans’ big Julius Randle, in addition to Marcus Morris, Bobby Portis, and Taj Gibson this summer. The team also has Mitchell Robinson, who averaged 4.3 blocks per 36 minutes last season.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker has been the star of the preseason. In 4 games, he’s averaged 15 points, 3.7 assists, and 2 steals, including playing the hero role in one game, as the Pelicans came back to win on the road against the Chicago Bulls.
Named the steal of the 2019 NBA Draft by NBA executives, Alexander-Walker could be in for another big game tonight if Dennis Smith Jr. and Frank Ntilikina can’t hold him in check off the New Orleans Pelicans’ bench.
How much Alexander-Walker plays tonight will be interesting, as he’s almost certainly played his way to a strong role in the regular season with his captivating run since the draft.
That’s it for the other ones
Feeling ready for real basketball? Well, you’re getting very close to that tonight, as you’re going to see Alvin Gentry run with his best rotations, or at least as much as he can with injuries.
Unfortunately, if you’ve made close mental bonds with Josh Gray, Zylan Cheatham, Jalen Adams, Javon Bess, and Kavell Bigby-Williams, it might be time to say goodbye for most of the season.
It’ll be an important night for Jaxson Hayes, who’s a fringe player to make the active roster. He could end up spending a healthy amount of time with the Pelicans’ G-League affiliate Erie BayHawks this season just to get regular minutes.
Preseason is both real and not real basketball at the same time. It is exhibition play, but it’s also incredibly important to run your offense for the first time against real opponents.
Granted, when you’re playing against guys who aren’t going to sniff a whole lot of the floor in their NBA careers, sometimes those minutes don’t feel as full of impact as some might hope.
Zion is out for tonight’s New Orleans Pelicans’ game with a knee soreness
Until late yesterday afternoon, it’d been smooth sailing for the New Orleans Pelicans this preseason. They’d beaten two Eastern Conference upstarts on the road, took down a couple of perennial Western Conference Playoffs teams, and looked like they had a lot higher ceiling than we realized even a few months ago.
Then it was reported that Zion Williamson would stay in New Orleans and miss Friday’s game against the New York Knicks after injuring his right knee in practice. He’ll be at the team’s facility undergoing further tests, which are right now apparently just precautionary measures.
Just now on ESPN: @wojespn says Pelicans are being cautious with Zion’s injury. Hope to know more in 24 hours and this isn’t a typical preseason ‘rest’ situation.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) October 17, 2019
Considering his best friend, RJ Barrett is the rookie star of the New York Knicks, it’s disappointing Zion won’t get the chance to play in tonight’s closing preseason game.
Many have Zion pegged as their done-deal rookie of the year candidate, some even have loftier ideas for the rookie’s first year. Perhaps if Zion misses too much time, he could battle Barrett for the rookie crown.
Hopefully, it doesn’t keep him out of Monday’s opener.
Zion did miss five games during his freshman season at Duke after his shoe exploded against North Carolina. While we’re not sure how this injury occurred, it’s always scary times when a young player goes down with an injury.
While they’ll miss their star tonight’ it’s exciting to know the team will get to run with its starters for much of tonight’s game. Fans will have to wait for heavy minutes of Zion, but they’ll get to see the rest of the bunch tonight in New York.