The New Orleans Pelicans have lost four games in a row, and in typical fashion, the Internet is overreacting.
Social media has made the big picture harder to see, but this is a long season and even the best teams go through rough patches at some point.
When the Pels were in the midst of their seven-game win streak it seemed like they might never lose again, but now some fans are acting as if the Pels four-game slide is reason to make a big trade or shake up the rotation.
The truth is that there is no reason to worry, as the New Orleans Pelicans are in great shape, still 4th in the Western Conference, and there is good reason to believe they’ll be back on top soon.
New Orleans Pelicans: The schedule and Brandon Ingram
The Pels lost two games to Utah, one to Phoenix and one to Milwaukee in this streak, so it’s not like they were beaten by the bottom feeders.
This was after playing the Suns two games in a row at home, which did seem to suck some of the life out of the Pelicans, which can happen with young squads who get too amped up for a particular matchup.
All of these losses have come without the services of Brandon Ingram, and considering only one of them was a blowout, there is a good chance they would have won three of these games had he been in there.
Brandon Ingram will be re-evaluated tomorrow and should be ready for action soon, which will push Trey Murphy III back to the bench, bolstering both units at once.
That stretch of the schedule the Pelicans just went through was one of the toughest of the season, and things will lighten up a bit soon. Here are the New Orleans Pelicans next four games:
- vs. Spurs
- @ OKC
- vs. Pacers
- vs. Timberwolves
Three of their next four games are at home and all four of them are winnable games, especially the first two against the Spurs and Thunder. The Pelicans could easily put together a four-game winning streak before taking on the 76ers and then traveling to Memphis and Philadelphia.
The NBA season is long, and if you had told me the Pelicans were going to be 18-12 mostly without Brandon Ingram, I would have taken that in a heartbeat.
The Pels don’t need to make a big trade or do anything dramatic, they just need to stay together, keep plugging away and get back those four games they just lost.