New Orleans Pelicans: 3 things to look for in “must win” game vs. Kings

New Orleans Pelicans: Who will play backup point guard?

Backup Point Guard

The Sacramento Kings may have the Rookie of the Year coming off their bench in Tyrese Haliburton, who is leading all rookies in just about every stat.

WIth Lonzo Ball out, the Pelicans have been using Nickeil Alexander-Walker as their starting point guard and using a committee approach when he goes to the bench. Zion Williamson and Ingram both brought it up against the Lakers with varying degrees of success.

The question is who is going to defend Haliburton when he’s in the game?

Eric Bledsoe seemed to still be struggling with his vision against the Lakers and may be limited.

Rookie Kira Lewis Jr. played just a few minutes vs. the Lakers after having a small breakout game against the Clippers and his role is really undetermined at this point.

The Pelicans’ starters match up well against the Kings but the bench could be a problem, especially if they can’t slow Haliburton.

Will we see more Kira Lewis? Can the rookie handle that defensive assignment? Will Stan Van Gundy try to stagger Bledsoe and NAW a bit more to ensure one of them is always on the floor?

Haliburton creates some problems for the Pels and it will be interesting to see how SVG tries to solve them.