Recapping Pelicans' games at 76ers and Celtics | Pelicans Podcast

Published Jan 13, 2025, 5:48 PM

On the latest New Orleans Pelicans Podcast for Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, Pelicans.com’s Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell recap this weekend's games against the 76ers and Celtics as we hear from head coach Willie Green and players on their performances.

Jim also gives us his player of the week and player to watch out for in the upcoming slate of games.

Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about the squad here from players, coaches, broadcasters, and those who cover the NBA on a daily basis. It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast starts right now.

All right, hello.

Everyone, and welcome back to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans. As we are off and running now in the month of January. Listen Jimike and Offerpelicans dot com. Second full week of the month of January. Hard to believe beginning of the month, we're talking about, man, seventeen games in thirty one days, and man, here we are getting close and closer to the midway point of this month.

Yeah, this month is flying by. I mean, I think this week end was really encouraging the fact that we saw just a lot better product on the court compared to what they've produced for you know, the first thirty plus games of the season. Now they're forty games in, so I think it was a good weekend overall. It would have been an amazing weekend if that last shot at the buzzer would have been about a half inch closer to the to the of where it bounced off the backboard. But nonetheless, I thought, I mean, I talked to a few people already this morning in the office here who we're saying that that was the most fun game that they've watched all season. It would have been really fun if it had been a win. But either way, I mean, it was a really good performance and encouraging.

No doubt. And when we last talked here on the podcast on Friday, we thought this three game East Coast swing was you know, it was daunting. It was challenging here a little bit. He hadn't played a very good basketball game, let's just be honest, on Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers. So you kind of interested to see what it went in. You know, when I meet you at Loft eighteen at our Pelicans watch party, we start our pre game with a nice visit with arel Opez. But then also he opens his mouth and he goes herb Jones could be out for a while with the shoulder injuries, Ion Williamson suspending. You going, oh, mom.

And you're not blaming Andrew Lopez for those things? When you said he opened his mouth that those things that right, that had happened, and we were discussing them. Yeah, no, it was. It was a really rough Friday afternoon. I mean to hear those two pieces of news was. It was a bad start to the weekend, no doubt. By the time we got to Sunday, things were looked a lot better.

And part of the reason was because of this on the Pelicans Radio network.

And now Uber tries to drive and Eve mecI says, get that shot out of here as he blocks it all the way into our bench. You see with the delivery deliver us from Eve. The column hops another three left to the top. The President is cooking eighteen first quarter points for CJ. McCollum. Gordon one on one with jail re crosses him over, gets to the rim, throws it out right to Joset wreathe the path Jose to Hawkins left wing three, barry it and made him right. McCollum dump it down low, Eve, don't it After a little double clutch to steal by Alvarado up the floor. McCollum pulls up from the wing right three and down right corner. Martin drives into the racket.

He got blocked by Meacy.

And it was off of Martner. You kidding Me and McCollum begging for the ball. Get it into Murray, Murray, bounce feed to Boston, Boston drives of the paint, bodied up, throw it up, no reboundy even a put back kick at the Jose wide open left wing. Three make him right President Hose free ball, Jose swish left wing is second in a row. Oh there, ho there, Oh there there, Jose to the right block, dump it off the Tyson another dunk.

There you go. You can hear the starters and the bench put in a lot of that for the last gym, specifically about what stood out in that. But here he's head coach Willy Green.

You know, just it's a credit to all of our guys and the character in that locker room, you know, dealing with a lot the last couple of days or so, and you know they just they pull together and went out and competed for forty eight minutes, played hard, you know, really solid defense, shared the ball offensively, all the things that we talk about, all of our concepts, and I'm extremely proud of this group.

One point, that's all that stood between them winning all four quarters in that game. Jim, you and I talked about it during the game. Thirty six points off the bench man, just your thoughts on that performance that night.

Yeah, I mean, the last thing you mentioned the bench was the thing that I think stood out to me the most. Just the fact that you had three guys that had a double figure scoring. Jeremiah Robinson Earl didn't score in that game, but he had a bunch of rebounds and assists, so I mean, just the contributions that they got from pretty much the entire rotation that game, I mean, and offensively as well, they scored. I mean, this was a little bit of a prelude to what they did Sunday, but they scored one hundred and twenty three points against Philly. So that was the most points they had scored in quite some time, other than the one of the games against the Wizards, which we know that Washington is really struggling overall as well as at the defensive end. So I mean, it was one of the better offensive games that the Pelicans have had in several weeks, and that was a reason why they not only won the game relatively easily, but also it seemed like they had the lead for almost the entire game.

Yeah, no doubt. And then you get to Boston and again that's a very daunting task. And that's a team that you know, Jim, they gonna fire away threes. What are they average fifty threes a game? Something like that. I mean, it's kind of crazy. So they here come the Pelicans, a team clearly no for the three point shooting and the Jontay Murray five in.

The first quarter, Zion bounce past to Murray that is online and down from the left wing. Are you serious to Jante Murray? Is this to Jonte Murray?

Who is this shooting this basketball like this?

Don't wake up if you're sleeping?

Nah?

I love that. And of course, Zion Williamson known as a person that loves to steal the basketball.

In the latest trip by Williamson.

Again steals e coast to coast lefty layup. It's good. Z has come up with three steals a consecutive possessions fifty five fifty one.

And then, of course, as the game went on and on the bench provided some stuff, you started seeing Zion looking a little more like himself.

Got to quiet the crowd. Zion power zan scooping Lefty lay up right in Cornet's grill.

That looked like Zion Williams.

See the body language ze he had the stump back up the floor that looked like yep.

And Jim just mentioned how important Jose has been on this road trip so far.

Porzegi's watch out. Oh we got stripped by McCollum back the other way, c j are you not two on one? Leave it for Jose? Wide open left wing three goo. You don't need to on one if you got Jose and the trailer provision.

Let me tell you something somebody else we're gonna be talking about here as well. Uh, the play of Trey Murphy.

Trey's wide open.

Oh, that's a good screen.

Left angles three, that's a good screen. It is down again for Trey Murphy. Kenneth the third benefits from that screen. I think it was Eve meafy and he's wide open on the cat five threes twenty eight points.

That's great to hear, right, Jim, the screen for me seees showing the growth on that, and then Trade just continues to knock down shots.

Yeah, down three, it's Ray Murphy's got a three left dagle three tray fun on him. Nope, rebound white after shots. You gotta have after shot to look it for. And we followed at the backcourt.

Right, I'll take that. I thought that was that was for the tie. Misread it miss for the tie. So Jim look obviously just up and down those high I cut twenty six highlights on that one. So much went well yesterday in how they played before we get to the last place.

It was fun to hear the happiness and grass voice because I know we've it's been rare sometimes we've had some stretches this year where he hasn't been able to sound that pleased with things. So yeah, it was. It was great. I mean, there were there were so many highlights. You said, twenty six clips. I mean that was just a fun game, and it was. It was definitely. I mean, it might have been a top five performance by the Pelicans this season, even though they didn't get to win.

Agree. I think that's a great way to look at it. I mean, Jim, when you look at what they did.

You know, they were hitting their threes.

You had guys that were making shots left and right, and I think one of the things that really stood up more than anything was. I asked you this already once. It was after one of the home games. I was like, man, this is one of the games you go, man, what if, right, well, what if if you didn't have those injuries and such? And you're seeing more and more of those examples, like you're still not fully healthy, but you're pretty much everybody would be I right, and and herb jumps right. But as far as the scoring was, and you're just you're seeing more of a rhythm that Jantay Murray looks more and more comfortable in that court. And dude, I know Eves isn't double doubling statistically, but it sure feels like he's having a bigger impact in these games.

Huh, yeah, he is. I mean, I think what we're seeing too, is it maybe you know, I don't have very much patience sometimes, and I mean under the circumstances. I totally understand people not having patience with this season, But it does seem like I think to some degree, we're seeing the guys that it's not just that you get the guys back from injury and then immediately they click in and everything's great. Sometimes it takes some time for them to get back into a rhythm. I know that was one thing people should can go back and listen to Friday's episode. One thing Antonio Daniel's talked about with de Jonte Murray was that he just needed time, and it seems like that's been the case with I mean, it took CJ a little while to get back to the way he's played lately. You know, it wasn't like I think with a lot of these guys, it wasn't immediately in the first few games after they came back from injury. They look like themselves, which is to be expected when you're out as long as some of these players have been. I think we're seeing that a little bit with Zion too, that he's showing a lot of promising signs, but you can tell that he's not one hundred percent yet and it's going to take him a little bit of time. I mean he's not playing his normal minutes either. Still explayed twenty eight minutes his first two games back from injury, So you know, I think that's a big part of it. Is just that you have so many players who not only were injured and came back from being out, but they were out for a long enough period where It's taken them a little time to get into a groove, but I think we're finally starting to see that that combination come together. As well as just the chemistry. It seems like Dejonte's figuring out where guys need the ball in different spots. He's been making really good decisions as far as when to shoot, when to pass, and so everything just looks better, and so I think, I mean, they have forty two games left in the season, just this is so much more watchable than what we saw for a lot of stretches of November and December. What they've done lately is it makes you want to tune in and watch it. It makes you just a lot more optimistic about it. We know the record is what it is and that it's going to be a tall order for them to even get back in the play in tournament race, but if they play like this, I just feel like it's just going to be a lot more more entertaining and worth your while to pay attention down the last three months of the season.

I mean, you saw the comments on social media. I mean people were happy with that performance and seeing it, and again, I think that's one thing I can take a loss if the other team. I mean, again, you have two all NBA three hundred and fifty million dollar players in Datum mid Brown. Sure, I mean that's who That's who they are, so and that's a team that won the championship. You're you're giving him that kind of game. Pretty much every other team in the NBA you play like that, you're winning.

Yeah, And I know, I mean ultimately from a big picture standpoint, this season has been infinitely frustrating at times, but one of the things that we want to see is just them be a lot more representative of a competitive NBA team and a lot more representative of the talent that we know that they have. So, like you said, I mean, it's stunk that they ended up losing the game by a point. And I mean that would have been an incredible way to win a game at the Buzzer and just to be able to beat Boston no matter how you do, it would have been a pretty memorable moment. Wouldn't have changed the overall scope or outlook of the season based on the standings, but it would have been extremely encouraging. But even without that basket, that shot by CJ McCollum going in and you know, bouncing off the rim even without it, if you look at things objectively and from a reasonable standpoint, when you take a step back, you realize that, I mean, if they play like this the rest of the way, you're at least going to be able to go into the offseason saying we went we got back to playing the brand of basketball that we thought we were going to be able to put on the floor when they had training camp, and that a lot of individual players. I know, we're probably gonna get into this a little bit more soon, but just a lot of individual players are making jumps and I think among the things that you have on your checklist of what you want to accomplish for the rest of the season, I think that's definitely near the top of the list.

No doubt. Here's Willie Green after the losses.

Yeah, I thought it was. It was a good game, game plan, discipline was at a high level. You know, the guys just they executed over and over again and it came down to the wire. So you know, I think everyone on our team and with our group, will we'll take that shot again. I mean it wouldn't in and out.

Yeah, no doubt. And look, that's todd work sometimes, right, but at least in that position because you've played hard to do that. I think that's the one thing that stood out in Zion's post game comments.

We competed even when they went on their runs. We didn't let it affect us, and we stayed in the game and we start to who we are, all right.

So, Jim, look, we've seen better basketball as of late. As we now transition us to what are we seeing different here thirteen days in a month of January that we haven't seen in the past.

Yeah, I mean right now, the Pelicans are three and four in January. That easily could have been a little bit better, obviously, But I mean in the seven games I think we've seen, there's so many different areas where they've been improved. I Mean, one of the things I want to start with is their fifth and three point makes per game in January. They actually outscored Boston last night in three pointers made, So I mean that was something that was kind of like an impossible dream if you think about it before the game, It's like that team, there's no way that they're going to be able to make more threes against Boston when they play them head to head. I mean, I think I wrote something in the pregame or in the preview yesterday morning about you just want to try to stay competitive, you want to just get within you know, a few baskets. If they outscore you by you know, nine or twelve points from three point range, you can live with that. But it turned out that the Pelicans, you know, made more threes than Boston did. It was seventeen to thirteen, So, I mean, just another good sign of early in the season. The first couple months of the season, the Pelicans were at the very bottom of three pointers made. I think they were they might have been thirtieth not that long ago. So for them to go all the way up to fifth, and granted, you know, we always have to say it's a small sample, it's seven games, but I mean, with the way that some certain individuals that I'm going to talk about in a second are playing, it's not that unheard of, it's not that out of the realm of possibility for them to make a big improvement, which they've done by being fifth in three pointers made this month. They're also ninth in three point attempts. And you know, we talked about how the goal this season is to take forty threes a game, and depending on the personnel that's available, whether it's injuries, whether it's you know, Zion comes back, you think maybe they'll shoot less threes because you're playing lineups that have Zion and even me see neither of those guys are going to be taking many, if any threes. But in January, the Pelicans have actually averaged thirty nine point nine threes a game, which is ninth in the league. So they're almost exactly at the forty just in January. So I think that's something that the coaching staff has to be pleased with the fact that they've you know, increased the amount of threes that they've taken. Clearly, it helps a lot to have CJ. McCollum available, now, have Trey Murphy available. Those are guys that can take, yeah, months, guys that can take ten or twelve threes by themselves in a game. And it doesn't it's not like they're force anything. It's like, okay, we expect that if it's you know, no one's gonna complain if Trey Murphy takes fourteen threes in the game. So I mean that's helped a lot as well, their twelfth and three point percentage in January. So even though they've pretty significantly increased the volume in how many they're taking, they've also gotten more accurate from three point range as well. I'm not going to go through all of these numbers, but I mean, just real quickly. They're twelfth in free throws made per game in January, their eleventh and free throw attempts. Zion's only played in two games, but he helps a lot in that area. Pelicans are fifth in blocks per game. So defensively, that's something that has been a plus. Offensive rating, which is points per possession their twelfth, they were in the bottom two or three for most of the season in offensive efficiency, so that has gone up a ton. Assist to turnover ratio their tenth, we know that they had a bunch of games where it was almost even. They had almost as many turnovers as they had assists, which, by the way, it's not good, No, that's not a good thing. So this month their assistant turnover ratio is two point one four, so they're having you know, obviously more than twice as many assists in turnovers. And then lastly, turnover percentage, they're sixth. We saw so many games where they'd be they'd get twenty something turn twenty plus turnovers, and just that would be a huge crucial reason why they didn't have a chance to win games. So now you're talking, you know, they're in the top ten and being able to take care of the ball. I think Jose E Varado has made a difference in that lately with him being on the floor. So just all these different areas where through January they've been so much better than they were in November and December in particular, And so the result of that is that you're just a lot more competitive and you have put all that stuff together and you almost beat Boston on their home floor.

Yeah.

Look, and I think one of the things that you bring up to is the captain obvious kind of thing. I mean, you need your players, Yeah, and there's a reason why those players are who they are. And I know CJ. McCollums said it in the past two and one of the games where they didn't win late and like, hey, your two most highest paid players on the floor to the ball. And even then that was a game that they hadn't played together that long, right, I think it was like the first or second game with both of them back, with the Jontay back, and you're seeing the difference. You're seeing the difference of why we were so happy that the Jonte was joining this team. I mean, he's got some incredible passes and stuff. Seeing the development of not only guys like Trey Murphy to their game and such, but Eve Mec you know same thing as well, where I keep looking at that box going like, you sure it's not a double double because I mean, look on one of those highlights, I just played Traits to three and you're here Todd say it was a great screen by Eves Meacy, Like those are things that maybe wasn't being as executed as as you would have liked early on in the year.

I mean, I think totally agree. I mean, you can't win in the NBA without talent if you have a big talent deficit, the way the Pelicans did in some of the games early in the season when they had so many guys out. I remember the game in particular, the game they played at Oklahoma City. It was like, how are you going to overcome this when you have this many key guys out in the town differential is so big that your margin you know, Willie Green has talked a lot about margin of error is small. I mean that one it was like smaller than like a needle pinhole. It was like you had to do everything right for forty eight minutes to have a chance to win the game. So it but it's also to me, it's not just getting the talent back that's the most important thing, but also just having it not be so disjointed where it feels like lately they did have a stretch of what was at ten twelve games in a row where they were able to start the same guys every every night and it wasn't necessarily resulting in wins, but they were I think they were getting closer and closer to having good chemistry and being more competitive. And now that you added Zion back in recently, you added Jose back in relatively recently. Now I think there the talent is back and the fact that it doesn't look so out of whack and confusing. I think because like I said earlier, Dejonte has played more minutes with a lot of these guys, and you could say that a bunch of about a bunch of players Jose and Daniel type had some really good connections in the game Friday, and it's like there's all these different two man combinations and lineups where they'd never had the opportunity to do some of the things that they've done lately because they were never together on the court. So it just feels like now that the familiarity that should happen is starting to kick in a little bit. Forty games into the season, I feel like in the November, for example, we saw times where ten games in the fifteen games in the season, the Pelicans still look like they had never played together because in a lot of cases they literally hadn't, whereas some of these other teams that they played, like Cleveland stands out to me, Okay, see they fifteen games in the season, they look like they played together for two or three years because they had, so I think that's definitely been something that's helpful lately that you're finally just getting some more cohesiveness.

I don't want to be the Gussie downer here, right, but to your point that you're saying, you just gave me a handful of stats, a handful of players that are playing better in those all reasons why we're seeing better and competitive bats ball All right, So Herb Jones it's gone for a little bit, if not for the season. R Right, So how does that affect plus or minus in terms of the team, in terms of their defense, because look, de Jontay Murray, I guess in the past, if he doesn't play, you lose a lot. And we saw at the beginning of the season he saw a lot, but that was also because Joney Murr wasn't played. Jontay Murray had what a game a couple of games ago, five six steals?

I mean sure, yeah, he said some huge steals.

You know, Zion Williamson five steals yesterday. If that guy can can pick that up. But Javonte Green played a night's game he did yesterday. Is so I don't want to say this because this guy is in you know, first team defense. But do the Pels have some players that can help survive the absence of Herb Jones on the defense?

I think so, I mean they're gonna miss Herb Jones a ton. I mean we've seen I've talked about recently the plus minus numbers when he's on the floor. It's kind of unmistakable the impact that he makes. I think, really, what's gonna happen. Is that it's going to be we're gonna see probably compared to if Herb was playing, We're probably gonna see more minutes from Trey Murphy. We maybe we'll see more minutes from Javonte Green. It did seem like Javante for a little bit there wasn't playing much. His minutes had gone way down because you had more players available. So I think that's gonna be one of the biggest impacts is we're gonna just see a little bit of a different combination of players that are available. But but yeah, I mean, they're gonna miss him for sure. It's there's no doubt that not having a first team all defensive guy. But like you said, you know, Dejonte is playing now and some of the other guys can hopefully make up for some of what they've done defensively. That's that I mean that I mentioned a bunch of stats. That's one area that they still need to make more improvement is at the defensive end. They've gotten better in January, but it's not a big jump from what it was. I mean, but it also doesn't help to you know, play some of the teams that they've played, like Boston one of the best offensive teams in the league. So but it's it's an area that they're going to have to kind of do by committee, i think, without her playing.

So look, you gave us some stats that that have, you know, shown as to why the Pels are playing a little bit better about individually. You've seen some performances you kind of heard me foreshat a little bit on Trey Murphy. What he's been doing one of your eyes.

Yes, he's definitely on my list. I mean, he's played four games in January, He's averaged twenty five point eight points per game. He's actually if you think about it, with how well CJ. Mccalum has played lately, but Trey is actually still leading the New Orleans and scoring average this month, So that says a lot right there. He's been He's made all nineteen of his free throws, He's averaged four three pointers made per game, So I mean, he's been huge. I think he's made another jump that is pretty evident that he's a different player than he was maybe even a month ago or a couple of weeks ago, and definitely compared to the beginning of season. So that's been great. CJ. McCollum. In January's averaged twenty five point one points per game. He's shooting fifty percent from the field, forty four percent from three point range. He's getting closer and closer to his his long stated goal of that, you know, by the end of the season or he I think he said within like ten days he would be back to uh forty percent from three point range. So he's getting closer to that. De Jonte Murray has just in January, he's averaging eighteen point four points. He's shooting forty five percent from the field compared to he shot thirty eight percent in December. In January, he's averaging five point nine rebounds, eight point zero assists, and only three point three point one turnovers per game. You know, he's a point guard. He's going to have some turnovers. That's part of the equation. And then lastly, Zion's played the two games that he's played, he's averaged four steels. He has eight total. To me on where where effort and conditioning shows up the most for him, I think when he's really right in those areas, it shows up on defense. He's really moving his feet, he's scrambling He's been doing a great job of anticipating when a ball handler has turned his back to him and all of a sudden he ambushes the guy and steals it from him. So I think that's that part has been really positive. One of the things that Antonio Daniels talked about on the TV broadcast last night was just Zion. It's hard to measure this, but he said, you know, Zion makes a big difference in the team's confidence. Basically that when you have him out there, it just gives you a different degree, a different level of belief that you know you can go into Boston and win that game. And clearly offensively as well, he makes a huge difference in that he's you know, people always talk about gravity in basketball. That he's drawing a lot of attention from other defenses and that's opening things up for the Pelicans overall. And last thing too, for him. In the two games that he's played since he came back from his injury, the Pelicans have won his minutes by twelve. They were plus eight against Minnesota and then plus four against Boston last night. And now I mentioned this before, I think last week, but now he's played two hundred and forty two minutes over the course of this season, and the Pelicans are minus two in that stretch. So you're talking about a team that's eight and thirty two overall record. But if you look at just the minutes that Zion has played, they're really pretty much almost exactly a five hundred team. So, I mean, if they were five hundred, we'd be talking about the play in race every single episode of this show. We'd be talking about, you know, they got to win this game and that. So it just kind of shows you just how much more competitive they've been when he's on the court, and how much more they look like a team that could reach the postseason as opposed to a team that is really not in contention right now.

Yeah, I mean, look at it is what it is. He don't don't need you don't need like special glasses or I need to know anything about basketball. And just see, I mean, the guy just has a different kind of talent level than others, right, I mean you just see that. I mean from the three sixty dunk when he first came back, you know, a couple of games ago, on that Tuesday against the te Wolves to you know, really to that point that you're saying yesterday, his offense wasn't there and that rhythm wasn't air, But he did other things in the game that that kind of you know, got there. And look, I mean late in that game, he throws a pass to that right corner that turns out to be a turnover and a fast break. Given another week or so where he's in the flow, that's probably a spectacular finish one way shape or form, you know, because I mean that so it's just it just stinks because we keep bringing up the what ifs, but it is, it is what ifs. I mean, there's a reason that guy is one of the best players there were.

There definitely were a few things that happened in the last couple of minutes of the game that if it goes a little bit different way, if you make a little bit better decision, maybe you win that game. Of course, Boston is saying the same thing that they had a five second violation that was super crucial. They had a couple other mistakes. They missed two free throws in the last what was it, ten fifteen seconds of the game, which was surprising. But yeah, I mean, you're right. I think I talked about earlier. How you know, guys that have been out for from injury, they have to get their rhythm back physically. I think you're right. I think it's one of those things where you know, the more time that Zion has on the court, maybe some of those mistakes that he made will be he'll improve upon and they won't be mistakes anymore.

Yeah, and Jim, let's let's see what happens as we continue the month of January. Now for your favorite part of it. Man, it's Monday already. It's week last week? What day the weekend is.

It's funny though, because when the Pelicans play on Sunday, a lot of feels like I always say this, it's the first of two Mondays, and so I know that doesn't sound great, but but but no it Yeah, it's it's Monday, but it feels like the second Monday to me.

And this week, by the way, a carbon copy of last week in terms of game on Mondays back to back on a Tuesday Wednesday in a game on Friday, which we'll get to in a quick second.

Well, it's a Monday, thankfully, Jim, is always our Friday. It's time for mister Eichenhoffer to give his Players of the Week and a player to watch for this week, which got.

Big Guy Well the player of the week. I think it's only right that I go with de Jontay Murray. I think the level of improvement that he's had warrants some special recognition. In the four games last week, he averaged twenty three points, shot fifty percent from the field, forty four percent from three point range, six rebounds a game, six point three assists, two point five steals. So I mean, he's just brought his level of play up so much, and I think this is something that we The way he's played lately, I mean not just the last week, but just recently going back a little ways, is what we expected from him, you know, when the Pelicans traded for him in the offseason from Atlanta. So tip of the cap to him. The player to watch this week, I'm gonna go with Trey Murphy, and it's interesting going back to mid December, he's actually leading the Pelicans of scoring at twenty five point two points per game. So again, you think about how well CJ. McCollum has played over the last month or so, and yet Trey's actually averaging more points than CJ. Is it just it speaks to just how great offensively he's been. His shooting splits over that same span forty nine percent from the field, forty two percent from three to ninety five percent from three point range. So I mean he's a sliver away from being fifty to forty ninety. Over the last few weeks that he's played, this has been the best stretch of his career in terms of just offensive consistency. He hasn't dipped below you know, sixteen or eighteen points for quite a long span right now. So it was great to have him back in the lineup on Sunday against Boston that he's going to be the player to watch the games this week. They play at Chicago on Tuesday, home against Dallas Wednesday, home against Utah on Friday, and then they have a little bit of a break no games on the weekend, and then they play Utah again the following Monday, which is the which is January twentieth. But I mean, just the last couple of things, A little quick injury update on the teams that the Pelicans are playing this week. Kobe White for the Bulls, who has had a couple of big games against the Pelicans in the past. He was a d MP Sunday against the Kings, a game that Sacramento won added to their winning streak Dallas on Wednesday. They don't have Luca or Kyrie. Kyrie hasn't played since January first, Luca hasn't played since Christmas, so Pelicans are catching a little bit of a break with both of those guys being sidelined right now. And then lastly the opponent Friday, Utah. They have too many recent DMPs for me to even mention. They had so many guys that didn't play Saturday in their most recent game against Phoenix. But Jordan Clarkson is I'll mention him. He's a six man, really good scorer off the bench for them. He's out, he won't be playing for a week or two, so he won't be in that game. But they have a bunch of other players like Lori Markin and who didn't play Saturday and not sure what their status is going to be. Obviously, this is still four days from when Utah comes here, but they're definitely a team that will be monitoring their injury situation because they have numerous players that have contributed for that John Collins is another guy, So we'll have to keep an eye on that to see what kind of Jazz team actually shows up here for the baseball series Friday and Monday. So bunch of bunch of different teams that also have some injury issues that the Pelicans are gonna be facing this week.

You mentioned Dallas not having those two guys kind of important. I mean, I know, Na He's done pretty well, but yeah.

Yeah, now, I'm sure Nausey thinks he can carry things. And you know, actually too, they've they've done a really good job of maintaining a decent record.

Seven So yeah, I guess the point I'm trying to make I met.

More recently, right, I mean some of those losses of the ten were actually before Kyrie was sidelined.

Right, And That's what I'm getting at, is it affects you when you don't have the players, no matter the team. I mean, obviously we saw with Phoenix, but what happened with them when they lost some players and you know, things, I need to look. That's why I think what okay SE's done is pretty remarkable. Ninety one air last ten, they finally lost their six game of the year. I think it was to Cleveland. They're thirty two and six on top of first. Same thing with Cleveland. Man, they've only lost five games or thirty three and five, but they've they've stayed pretty healthy. I mean when Cleveland wasn't last year, like it's time to blow up the team, fire the coach and they were all injured.

Which they actually did do, by the way, they did fire the coach, it did, but yeah, no, it was in terms of been healthy. Yeah, in terms of their main guys. They stuck with their four best players and it's worked out extremely well. I mean, you know, I talked to her a lot earlier in the episode about no patients. I mean, I think it's one of those things. I mean, Evan Mobley is a great example of no patience. People were saying like, oh, he's not making progress, and it's like, dude, this guy's still really early in his career. He comes back, comes back this season, makes a huge jump. Is going to be an All Star. Darius Garland, same thing. He had tons of injuries last year, tons of things that affected him even when he was playing. He's improved a ton and so you add that all up together and you have the team that they have at thirty three and five, which is one of the best starts in the history of the NBA. So yeah, no, they I mean, the fact that there's six games in the lost column ahead of Boston is amazing.

Yeah, right, that team that we saw yesterday. Look and here here's where we are here in New Orleans. We just want to see some competitive and good basketball, and we're seeing that as of late. Jim brought up some numbers. Jim brought up some players that are starting to get into it. And look around the corner. We could be seeing Brandon Ingram, you know, return to the lineup and see how that goes, and that would add to it. So let's see this week. As we mentioned tomorrow, we have the Bulls then at home against the Mavericks coming up, and as Jim said, the baseball series with the Jazz over the weekend. They don't go back on the road until the end of the month here Memphis, Charlotte and Toronto, and that's literally the last weekend or second last I mean in the January.

So we'll be home for a little bit after the game at Chicago Tuesday. It's really a four game homestand I mean they jump right into it with the back to back Wednesday against Dallas, but yeah, Dallas, two games against Utah and then the one against Milwaukee, So I mean they're gonna have a bunch of chances in front of the home fans to play a lot better and try to hopefully carry over what they've done so far on this road trip back to the games in the Smooth and King Center. I mean, there's a lot of time left in the season, so I mean, I think it's really important to continue to show what you've done, at least recently in the month of January, where you're just so much better team and so much more representative of what you can do as a group.

As always appreciated the time, mister Jim I can offer, thank you so much. We'll see you on Wednesday. Thanks guys, all right, and thank you for tuning us in on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.

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