New Orleans Pelicans vs. Sacramento Kings: Another Must-Win

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Sacramento Kings: Key Matchups

Key Matchups

This is another game that plays into the New Orleans Pelicans’ strengths defensively.

Jrue and Lonzo can hound any ball handler that the Kings want to run their offense through on any possession. That will primarily be Fox and Jrue will likely be given that assignment so that Lonzo can use his height to challenge the shot of the off-ball guards Sacramento relies on.

Ball and Fox have a budding rivalry, so we’ll definitely see that matchup at some point in the game. Lonzo should take things to another level against his old rival from Kentucky.

After seeing how out of shape Favors has looked through three games, it wouldn’t surprise me if head coach Alvin Gentry wanted to go small with Brandon Ingram at the four and insert Hart in with that group more often. Having Hart on the floor will help to deal with the scoring that Barnes or Bogdanovic provides.

Without Marvin Bagley, the Kings have gone small for most of the season and played either Richaun Holmes or Nemanja Bjelica as the sole big man. That can be good for New Orleans, as neither of those players, like most NBA players, are equipped to deal with Zion if New Orleans does indeed go small.

The Kings have been the better team defensively this season, barely beating out the Pels 111.1 to 111.3. That is a full season number and isn’t fully reflective of how much better the New Orleans Pelicans’ defense has been since the calendar flipped to 2020.

Who the Pelicans decide to have Brandon Ingram defend will go a long way towards determining the winner. Ingram’s scoring has been incredible this year but his defense needs to improve. If he’s placed on Barnes that would be a problem for New Orleans as Barnes has proven capable of having a really good night against BI.

Like all three restart games for the Pelicans so far, the team needs to take advantage of the minutes when Zion sits as they have been better with the rookie off the floor than on.

That could be due to him ramping up to full game action or the ball moving more smoothly without him. Either way, the bench mob will need to keep the pedal to the floor for New Orleans to come away with a win and end Sacramento’s hopes.