The Portland Trail Blazers are finishing up a long road trip today with a visit to New Orleans to face the Pelicans. Both teams are coming into this game well rested while watching the Emirates NBA Cup action over the last few days. The banged up Blazers are 1-3 on this road trip, and have lost their last two games.
On the other side, the Pelicans are losers of seven straight games and currently hold the NBA’s worst record. However, unlike most teams that find themselves in that spot, New Orleans
doesn’t own the rights to their first round pick in the upcoming draft, meaning they are not tanking, just bad. However, that also means they have no reason to try and lose this game, and could have a chance to catch Portland looking past them.
What You Need to Know
Portland Trail Blazers (9-15) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (3-22) – Thur., Dec. 11 – 5:00pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else
How to listen: Trail Blazers Audio Network
Trail Blazers injuries: Scoot Henderson, Damian Lillard, Matisse Thybulle, Blake Wesley, Jrue Holiday, Donovan Clingan (out); Robert Williams III, Yang Hansen (questionable)
Pelicans injuries: Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Jordan Poole (out)
What to Watch For:
Who’s even playing? Portland’s laundry list of injuries just keeps expanding. Eventually some of those players will come back. But what will they be coming back to? Five of Portland’s guard rotation have been injury report mainstays recently. That group could now be joined by the Blazers’s top three centers. If Robert Williams and/or Yang Hansen suit up, that lack of center minutes gets a little better. But if both of them miss the game?
Luckily for Portland fans, Deni Avdija’s name is still absent from the injury list. His play so far this season gives the Blazers a fighting chance every time he is on the court, and some magic from Avdija might be what Portland needs to overcome the holes in their rotation.
Outside of Avdija, the lack of depth likely means heavy minutes for Duop Reath, Sidy Cissoko and Caleb Love. That trio came into the season buried on the depth chart. However, they have all gotten heavy minutes so far this season. Reath might even earn his first start if he’s the only healthy center.
Take care of business. What do you get when you cross the 24th offensive rating with the 29th defensive rating? Apparently three wins. Even with being on the road, even with all the injuries to the Blazers, this Pelicans team should be an easy win. After a promising 5-3 start, Portland is just 4-12. Obviously the injuries are a factor, but taking a chance to win an easy game could help right the ship.
However, this is a trap game of sorts. New Orleans is missing three key rotation players, but have gotten some great performances from their rookie duo of Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen. Fifth year forward Trey Murphy has also been on a heater recently. A monster performance from one or two of those players and the Blazers could be heading home with a missed opportunity to pick up an easy road win. All that worry can be alleviated by Portland just taking care of business.
What Others Are Saying:
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk wrote an excellent feature on Pelicans rookie Derik Queen and the trade that shocked the NBA world and landed him in New Orleans.
There are nights when Queen looks like the steal of the draft, such as when the 6-9 former Maryland star became the first rookie center with a 30-point triple-double in NBA history on Monday against the San Antonio Spurs. But as the injuries and losses pile up — the latest gut punchcoming in yet another weekslong injury to Zion Williamson, with New Orleans owning the league’s worst record at 3-22 — the trade for Queen looks even riskier.
The Pelicans might not benefit from what is expected to be a loaded draft at the top next summer. Regardless, Dumars believes Queen and Fears will prove him right, even though several opposing general managers say they would have never traded an unprotected first-round pick.
Christ Lambert of PelicanDebrief talked about Queen’s play this season after a 33-point triple-double in his last game against the San Antonio Spurs.
I’m a pretty big college basketball guy and someone who loves evaluating prospects, and I may be wrong, but I haven’t seen any big man in the following two draft classes who is capable of these types of performances. What makes DQ so unique is that when he starts getting into a flow scoring-wise, you can’t begin to double-team him, because if you do, he is a smart and capable enough passer to punish you by finding the open man. This is exactly what he did against San Antonio and has done multiple times this season.
