New Orleans Pelicans: Injuries may deny fans entertaining matchup vs. Mavericks

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Injuries are ruining the New Orleans Pelicans’ season.

This seems to be a yearly tradition for the Pelicans unfortunately, as they have suffered myriad injuries over the last three seasons that have set the franchise back.

Zion Williamson is out and no one knows when he’ll return. Brandon Ingram‘s “hip contusion” has lingered and again, we don’t know when he’ll be back.

As if missing your two best players wasn’t enough, one of the lone bright spots of the season, Herb Jones, has been out with injury since being named to the Kia Rookie Ladder.

Jones has played amazing defense so far this season, impacting the game in many ways without scoring.

He is listed as questionable for tonight’s game with the Dallas Mavericks, and if he is not in the game it will deny fans what would have been a great one-on-one battle.

New Orleans Pelicans: Herb Jones vs. Luka Doncic

Herb Jones has shown he can defend all over the floor and that he’s not afraid to step up to the difficult defensive assignments. We’ve seen him take on everyone from Trae Young to Karl-Anthony Towns in this young season.

There are few more difficult than Luka Doncic, a perennial MVP candidate who gives just about every defender nightmares.

I was really looking forward to this one, as Jones is uniquely suited to at least slow Doncic down, as he has the length and instincts to get into passing lanes for deflections and to make Doncic’s shots more difficult.

Jones would also savor this assignment and make it his life’s goal to stop Doncic, something that would have been entertaining to watch and likely given Jones’ versatile defensive ability even more national attention.

It doesn’t sound like Herb Jones is going to play tonight, but I am keeping my fingers crossed, as it would be a great test to see if he could lockdown Doncic.

There hasn’t been much to look forward to in this season for fans of the New Orleans Pelicans, so let’s hope Jones can make the start tonight and put the clamps on Luka.