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Portland Trail Blazers Preview: New Orleans Pelicans

By Joel Viss

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NBA Tip Off is finally upon us. No, our beloved Portland Trail Blazers did not play on the opening night, but we only had to wait one day. Today is the day is when the Blazers rebuilding process is put out against real competition. No more playing other team’s snubs for a good thirty minutes each night in the preseason; it is going to start to get real.

As said before, the Trail Blazers open their season up on tonight at 7:00 pm at home. They play the New Orleans Pelicans who lost last night to the Warriors, 111-95. The Pelicans star player is, of course, Anthony Davis. The 6’10 220 pound product out of Kentucky is in his fourth season of the NBA. Davis is one of the favorites to win this year’s MVP and has a huge say in whether the Pelicans can make the playoffs or not in the very deep Western Conference where nothing is guaranteed.

The Pelicans also bring with them a new coach from a championship team. Head coach Alvin Gentry was the Warriors associate head coach and was the right hand man of head coach Steve Kerr. Gentry had other stops in Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles and Phoenix but will try to make the one in New Orleans just as special as Oakland.

Oct 12, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum (3) drives to the hoop against the Utah Jazz in the first quarter at EnergySolutions Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

A positive for the Blazers but sad news for the Pelicans is the loss of Tyreke Evans, who is out 6-8 weeks with a knee injury. Evans may be the most impactful injury the Pelicans have and that is saying a lot since they have a few key injuries. Their starting center, Omer Asik, is out Tuesday against the Warriors with a calf strain and his back up, Alexis Ajinca, is playing in the opener but with a hamstring injury. This leaves journeyman, Kendrick Perkins, the starting center for the Pelicans, a real plus for the Blazers, since we like to stretch out the floor

That’s only the front-court. The backcourt of the Pelicans have issues of their own as well. Along with Evans, backup point guard Norris Cole could miss up to 6 weeks with a left ankle sprain and definitely will not be playing. Quincy Pondexter may be out till November with a knee injury, which leaves Dante Cunningham and former Trail Blazer Alonzo Gee, gobbling up minutes that are meant for starting players. 

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The Blazers are actually favored to win this game by 2.5 points according to Oddssharks. However this game will be far from a walk in the park. Although the Pelicans will be playing back-to-back games, they were still a playoff team and have one of the best players in the league. Point guard Jrue Holliday and shooting guard Eric Gordon are not bad players and act as solid role players to compliment Anthony Davis’ game. Holliday is a very good passing point guard as his 8 assists during his one all star season. Gordon can score the ball pretty well having a career high 22.3 points per game in 2011; Damian Lillard’s career high for ppg is 21.o.

Basketball is a game of match ups. If one team has one weak defender the whole defense will suffer. The match ups overall seem to favor the Pelicans as they have the best player on the floor and one of the Blazers worst defensive players in Meyers Leonard is going to have to guard him. If Leonard can limit Davis to anything lower than 25 points 15 rebounds that is a plus for the Blazers.

The other worrisome defender in the Blazers lineup is the superstar himself, Damian Lillard. Lillard was awful defending wise in the playoffs last year and was embarrassed by an injured Mike Conley and back up point guard Beno Udrih. If he continues to play poor defense it is going to be hard for him to be a leader for this Blazer’s team.

The way the Pelicans will try to beat the Blazers is by getting Anthony Davis involved and early. They know that their is a mismatch on whoever tries to guard him and they will try to exploit it with screen and rolls and backdoor screens towards and away from the basket.

It is key to notice that after every Davis screen he does something after it. In this case he just sets another one, this one being an on ball screen for the point guard. After that screen he rolls to the basket hard looking for the ball, most likely a lob. Since the center helps Davis on this play his man, Kendrick Perkins is open. However, Perkins not being a good offensive player, mishandles the ball and it goes out of bounds.

Antony Davis can shoot too (not in this example though)! As I said in the previous video Davis always does something after he screens. In this case he runs to the opposite end of the court to use the screen teammate Perkins sets for him. He gets the shot he wants, however he does not convert.

This play not only expands the court it also gives Davis some space to drive the ball and open up shots for some of his teammates.

Another play with the same concept of the three point shot is when Davis curls the screen. Instead of going straight to the three point line and settling for a low percentage shot he goes toward the basket after the screen. Nikola Mirotic and Pau Gasol do a very good job of switching on the screens and leave Davis befuddled. Davis’ first mistake is looking to pass first when he should have the attacking mindset. There is no one to pass to and once he looks to attack the defender has already recovered the play becomes a mess after this and turns into a bad midrange jump shot by Evans.  

The Pelicans do not set up plays just for Davis. In this one Holliday brings the ball up the court before he does a dribble handoff with Cunningham. Cunningham then swings the ball to Davis who does the same to Gordon. Meanwhile, Perkins sets a backdoor screen for Holliday as all eyes are on the ball. Holliday comes off the screen wide open then is towered by two Heat players. He gives it to Perkins at the block who wants nothing to do with it and quickly passes it to Cunningham at the 3 point line. Cunningham drains the three but is a .111 career three point shooter, someone the Blazers should not be worried about from that distance.

The Pelicans want to get the ball to Davis at all the different parts of the courts and will line him up accordingly. On this specific play he starts at the top of the key and works his way down to the right elbow. When he gets the ball he passes it to Gordon and sets a ball screen for him. Gordon, running towards Davis, has the defense’s attention and forces the help away from Davis. Davis rolls, probably not hard enough, to the basket and shoots a gentle floater that clunks off the rim. I think if he rolled harder there would have bee a layup there for him instead of a difficult floater over the defender.

As well as having plays to have Davis set up and ready to score when he gets the ball, the Pelicans have more simple plays that let him go to work from the post isolated. They basically just clear out one whole side, usually the left block and let him do his thing. On these two plays it exposes his lack of post game and how much better he still could be.

What the Blazers have to do is get the ball into hands of those who are not playmakers: Dante Cunningham and Perkins. These players will hit a layup or an open jump shot but they will not win the game for their team like a Holliday, Davis or Gordon can.

The Blazers bench will be real key to a victory in the game as the Pelicans are depleted with injuries. The bright spot of the Pelicans bench is Ish Smith (a former high school teammate of our editor, Blake DuDonis) who came out on fire against the Warriors and virtually got the Pelicans back into the game. Other than Smith, Ryan Anderson may see a lot of time on the floor, especially with Davis. These two can make or break the Blazers second team as Allen Crabbe (gulp) is the only reliable scoring threat. If backup point guard, Tim Frazier can get some buckets that would be a bonus and could take some minutes off of Lillard’s plate.

This could be a statement to the Blazers whole season. If they come out guns a blazing they could build some confidence for themselves for the season by beating a team that was in the playoffs last year. If they come out flat the mindset could be “this is how it is supposed to be”.

The Blazers will win this game if they hit a couple of shots early to get into a groove and build confidence and make a player other than Davis, Gordon or Holliday beat you on the defensive end.

My prediction is the Blazers win the first home game to open the season. The crowd will be behind their new team and rile them up against a team that may be tired after their second road game in back to back nights.