New Orleans Pelicans vs. Toronto Raptors: The Pels need to dominate the paint
Points in the paint
The New Orleans Pelicans were one of the worst teams in the NBA at stopping points in the paint last season, giving up 52 a game.
They did much better in the preseason, allowing only 38 points in the paint against the Heat and 44 against the Bucks, who were missing Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The addition of Steven Adams should be enough to help the Pels in this area, but they will need the other bigs to keep the Raptors from getting easy buckets.
The Pelicans also need to feed their post players against the Raptors, who really don’t have an imposing big man or rim protector.
The Raptors have only Aron Baynes and Alex Len in the middle, two guys that Zion and Adams should be able to dominate.
If the Pelicans can rack up early fouls on the Toronto bigs, the Raptors will be forced to go small, which could be an advantage for the Pels.
For the Pelicans to beat Toronto, they need to limit the number of easy baskets in the paint and for Adams and Zion to have big games.