New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Things to Watch in the Scrimmage vs. Nuggets
Here are some things to look for in the New Orleans Pelicans’ second scrimmage.
The New Orleans Pelicans looked surprisingly sharp in their first scrimmage game against the Brooklyn Nets.
They hit 10/20 from long-range in the first half, Brandon Ingram was locked in and the bench had a nice effort against a heavily depleted Nets team.
Related Story. Positives and Negatives from the First Scrimmage. light
They hope to keep it rolling against the Denver Nuggets in the second bubble scrimmage. Here’s information about where to watch/stream or listen to the game.
The Denver Nuggets also won their first scrimmage behind Internet legend Bol Bol, who filled out a stat sheet inefficiently and set Twitter off.
Both teams are likely to play the starters a few more minutes, though Denver played their regulars heavy minutes in the first scrimmage. The Pelicans held back in game one, but we’re likely to see a lot more of the starters in game two.
Here are a few things to look for in the Pelicans’ second scrimmage.
Going Small Against a Big Team
Derrick Favors sat out the first scrimmage for “rest” and the Pelicans went small the whole game, at times playing four guards along with center Jaxson Hayes, and even going with Nicolo Melli at center for a few minutes.
Alvin Gentry may choose to rest another veteran in this game and there is still no word on whether Favors will appear in game two.
Denver is big, especially now that they’ve unleashed Bol Bol, so it will be interesting to see how the Pelicans deal with their size, with or without Favors.
The Pels aren’t particularly deep with big men, especially without Zion Williamson, so they may just try to go small and run Denver off the floor.
The question is whether they’ll be able to match up defensively with Ingram at power forward and Josh Hart or Redick playing the three. These lineups make the Pelicans dynamic offensively but could potentially get punished at the other end.
This is going to be a common theme throughout the eight-game finale and hopefully playoffs, as the Pelicans ability to go small makes them more versatile if they are missing players.