New Orleans Pelicans: How they can beat the Toronto Raptors

Defensive Strategy- Shut down the Lowry-VanVleet and force Pascal Siakam to run the offense

The second strategy that I believe the Pelicans can use to beat the Raptors is one that teams used to stop them last season. The approach is simple, shut down the Raptors’ backcourt duo of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet and force the team’s other players, specifically Pascal Siakam to run the offense.

This is the gameplan for any team to stop the Raptors defensively because so much of their offense runs through those two guards. Lowry and VanVleet facilitate everything the Raptors do in pick-and-roll action, and they’re the best shooters on the team.

If the Pelicans can shut them down, and take them out of a scoring rhythm, the game becomes much more difficult for the Raptors. Norman Powell, OG Annuoby, and Pascal Siakam are all good players but they struggle to create offense for themselves, and none of them are great at running an offense.

If I were Stan Van Gundy, I’d attack the Raptors with this defensive gameplan, and hope the ball ends up in Siakam’s hands a lot. We saw last postseason that as great as Siakam is now, he struggles with decision making, so if you make put him in that position, you could get some turnovers.

Will the Pelicans attempt to use these gameplans? I’m not quite sure because I’m not with the coaching staff preparing, but I do think that it couldn’t hurt to give the Raptors a run for their money by trying to neutralize their zone defenses, and lockdown their backcourt!