Just counting down the days. The Brooklyn Nets had another chance to win on Sunday evening, but couldn’t get over the long arms of Victor Wembenyama as the San Antonio Spurs beat them in overtime. The Atlanta Hawks keep losing, but it doesn’t matter because the Nets keep losing.
The opponent tonight is one of the league’s best now and likely in the future. The New Orleans Pelicans have started to figure things out and will be a headache to deal with in the playoffs. They helped their seeding with a win over the Portland Trailblazers on Saturday night. New Orleans is one game behind the Los Angeles Clippers for fourth place in the Western Conference playoff standings.
Where to follow the game
YES Network on TV. WFAN on radio. Tip after 7:30 PM.
Injuries
No Ben Simmons or Dariq Whitehead. Dorian Finney-Smith is questionable due to left ankle soreness.
Dyson Daniels is out due to left knee menisectomy. Herb Jones is probable with a low back/hip contusion.
The game
New Orleans won the first meeting. In fact, the Pelicans led for the entire game.
Tonight’s the first game of a four-game road trip for the Pelicans. After this one wraps, they’ll play back-to-back games in Florida before wrapping things up against the Detroit Pistons next Monday. For the Nets, they’ll get back on the road after this wraps up to begin a four-game road trip that will last for a week. Home for one day, back on the road the next day.
When you’re in a position of leadership, sometimes it helps to admit you messed up. Sure you can come up with your reasoning behind your choice, but if it doesn’t work, best to acknowledge it and move on. That’s what Kevin Ollie had to do in postgame after he was asked about not having Cam Thomas on the court in the final possession of regulation:
Kevin Ollie on the decision to put Cam Thomas on the bench on the Nets' final possession:
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) March 18, 2024
"That's definitely something that we'll look at going down the stretch again. Would have loved to have CT in there. I'll take that one."
And so it goes.
Thomas will be back at it, and he’ll get to test himself against one of the league’s best perimeter defenders. Herb Jones has terrorized perimeter players all season long and everyone in New Orleans is campaigning for him to make the All-Defensive team. His length, timeliness, and activity level creates havoc for opponents and Jones can fill up the stat sheet on the other side of the ball. For Thomas, he’ll have to find ways to get to the basket and use his strength to create advantages over Jones. Both players were taken in the 2021 Draft and they’ve each started to come into their way as they get more NBA experience. Should be a fun matchup. It should also be noted that Thomas played in college ball at LSU so he knows a lot of his Louisiana fans will be watching. So there’s an added incentive.
The Nets will have to deal with a battering ram tonight. Since he last played the Nets, Zion Williamson has averaged 23/5/5 on 58% shooting from the field. When he’s attacking the basket, he can finish over, through, and around whoever’s there in the painted area
Williamson will put maximum amount of stress on the Nets interior defense tonight. With Finney-Smith at less than full strength, the Nets will try to see if they can make up for his lack of health. Nic Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe will have to patrol the paint and keep the Pelicans off the glass. New Orleans is ninth in the NBA in rebounding and they have a Net nemesis in Jonas Valanciunas manning the middle.
Player to watch: Brandon Ingram
Do the work, and the success will follow up. It was a fairly bumpy beginning to Brandon Ingram’s career, but he’s continued to work hard and add more and more to his game each season. Amazingly, this is Ingram’s eighth season in the league. It feels like he hasn’t been here that long, but that’s how it goes when you come into the league as a teenager. Ingram is a good bet to make the United States Men’s National team this summer as Team USA tries to capture gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before we deal with that, the Nets will try to slow him down tonight. Ingram does a lot of things well on the court and he gives Willie Green’s team another good ballhandler and a star they can turn to late with the game on the line.
Mikal Bridges will try to figure things out. He continued to struggle on Sunday as his 5-of-16 from the field didn’t help the Nets cause. The Nets need more from Bridges if they want to be anything approaching watchable from now to the end of the season. The effort is there, but the results haven’t been, which has frustrated Bridges during his recent slump. You just keep pushing and hope that you have a breakthrough.
Also, tonight marks Bridges 500th consecutive game if you count both his regular season Ironman streak which will be at 461 tonight and his post-season streak which is at 39 games. If you add his time at Villanova, 116 straight games, the streak is at 616 and if you really want to get in the weeds, Mikal Bridges has played 19,557 minutes since walking on to Villanova’s Main Line campus. And we’re not counting the 300 or so minutes he played in the FIBA World Cup games this summer. Does he need a rest?
From the Vault
Justin Timberlake is back with Everything I Thought It Was. With that in mind, let’s throw it back to two of his many all time jams
More reading: The Bird Writes, SB Nation NBA, Nets Republic, In the N.O.
- Brooklyn Nets Game Notes - Brooklyn Nets
- New Orleans Pelicans Game Notes - New Orleans Pelicans
- Brooklyn takes on New Orleans, seeks to break 3-game slide - AP
- PELICANS BRING STRONG ROAD RECORD INTO MATCHUP WITH NETS - Larry Fleisher - Field Level Media
- Nets refusing to dwell on struggles, shaky future as playoff hopes slip away - Bridget Reilly - New York Post
- Pelicans’ Zion Williamson faced an important defensive test on Friday. He passed. - Christian Clark - New Orleans Times-Picayune