Memphis Grizzlies At New Orleans Pelicans Preview
The Memphis Grizzlies have won three straight games and will look to make it four Monday night against the New Orleans Pelicans.
It was a nice week for fans of the bears on Beale Street as the Memphis Grizzlies are riding a three-game win streak and aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
Now they’ll be heading down to Louisiana to face the New Orleans Pelicans in a road matchup Monday night.
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New Orleans has struggled mightily this season due to injuries and poor roster fits, but superstar forward Anthony Davis is always ready to leave his mark on the game and give any Western Conference team a run for its money.
On the season Davis is averaging 22.9 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game while sporting a 24.5 PER. His numbers aren’t bad but they’re certainly down from his MVP-caliber year just a season ago in which he had arguably one of the greatest single seasons of all time by advanced metrics.
The Pelicans have instilled a faster offense under new head coach Alvin Gentry which could be affecting Davis’ production in more ways than one. But they’ll need to execute it to perfection if they wish to challenge the Grizzlies despite the game being on their home turf.
Memphis is finally letting the NBA world know it’s time to get down to business in the West as they’ve been scoring points and playing a suffocating brand of defense lately. The Grizzlies’ win streak of three games has come against teams currently out of the playoff hunt but it still matters because a team with Memphis’ respectability should take care of business against weaker teams, and that wasn’t the case earlier in the season.
The biggest bright spot for the Grizzlies is the improved play of Marc Gasol who’s looking more and more like the All-Star he was last season. He’ll be an important part of Memphis’ attack against the Pelicans because of his ability to stretch the defense out and create driving lanes for Mike Conley and Jeff Green.
If Gasol can bring Davis out of the paint and eliminate New Orleans’ consistent threat of shot blocking, then the Grizzlies have more than enough of a chance to win this game. The guard play of the Pelicans has been inconsistent all year because of the fact that Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans all need the ball in their hands and there’s only so many shots you can take next to as bright of a star as Davis is.
Limiting Davis on both ends of the floor is the primary key to stopping New Orleans. Memphis has the weapons to do so, meaning this game could get ugly pretty quick for the home team.