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The New Orleans Pelicans were the second team eliminated from the post season earlier this week, but they’ve been on a little bit of an upswing late in the season with the return of Zion Williamson. Two of those wins were against the Spurs on February 23 and 25, and they’re looking to win the season series 3-1 with a win tonight. The Silver and Black was blown out last night by the Charlotte Hornets, who hit shots in the game at a higher rate than they do in pre-game warmups. The score wasn’t indicative of how badly the Spurs were blown out, as they were able to score a enough empty calorie garbage time points to score 135, which is great, except when the opponent scores 145.
Tonight we should see more time from Stephon Castle, as he plays to lock up the rookie of the year award, and maybe more minutes for Blake Wesley, who played with energy and made garbage time interesting and frustrating to watch by turns. Bismack Biyombo should have an interesting matchup with Zion, he’s overmatched physically, but he won’t back down, and as long as he plays with physicality it should be fun to watch. Devin Vassell has been playing well lately, and it’s going to be fun to watch him try to keep the Spurs in the game with his scoring. It’s also inspiring to see that Keldon Johnson is maintaining his energy level despite the team’s slide in the standings.
The thing to look for is to see if the Spurs can at least try to offer some resistance on defense, because the let the Hornets score at will last night. The offense for the Spurs has been fine since the All Star break, but the defense has been abysmal, and a lot of that is due to the personnel, which lacks the size to compete with most teams in the NBA, but inability to close out shooters has also been a huge problem. Let’s watch and see if that can improve tonight.
Game Prediction:
The Pelicans will shoot at 80% for the game, setting an NBA record for accuracy.
One final word:
GO SPURS GOOOO!!!
San Antonio Spurs vs New Orleans Pelicans
March 15, 2025 | 7:30 PM CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: KENS
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