New Orleans Pelicans: The Most Important Numbers to Watch at Disney

When the New Orleans Pelicans take the floor at NBA Disney, there will be two key statistics that may decide if they make the playoffs.

If you look at the statistics since Zion Williamson‘s return, you’d think that the New Orleans Pelicans were dominating.

Since Zion came back, the Pelicans have the top scoring offense in the NBA and the 8th rated defense. They have averaged more assists per game than anyone in the NBA, and are second in offensive rebounding.

The problem is that all of those great numbers only resulted in a 10-9 record in the 19 games that Zion has played with the Pelicans.

There are several reasons the Pelicans couldn’t translate their high scoring and good defense into more wins.

The first is the schedule. 14 of those 19 games were against either playoff teams or teams that were close enough to get invited to Orlando, so it was one of the toughest stretches of the season.

This was all happening as the Pelicans were trying to integrate Zion on the fly, not easy considering the team has barely played together and was playing well without him.

They had to try and re-tool their offense around Zion after Brandon Ingram had carried them offensively for most of the season.

For the most part the transition has worked and the Pelicans played some beautiful basketball, often looking like they had played together for decades:

When the New Orleans Pelicans are humming, the ball moves effortlessly, players are hitting their open shots and they look like they could beat any team in the NBA.

But there are times when the Pelicans are their own worst enemy and look as though they forgot what a basketball looks like or what to do with it.

It’s part of being a young team, but the Pelicans will have to clean a few things up if they want to earn a playoff spot.