The New Orleans Pelicans have painted themselves into a corner early on in the NBA’s restart inside the bubble. After losses in their opening two games, New Orleans can hardly afford to lose another game if their hopes of making the playoffs are to stay alive.
Fortunately, the Pelicans have a game against the Grizzlies on Monday, a side that they have dominated this season. In two late-January games, New Orleans won by 10 and 28 points, though the former game featured them leading by as many as 25 points.
A win against Memphis also pulls the Pelicans closer to the playoffs with Memphis still the eighth seed in the playoffs. On Sunday after practice, Lonzo Ball spoke about the keys for the Pelicans to right the ship while acknowledging the significance of Monday’s game.
“I think just getting back to playing how we were before the break, really,” Ball said. “It starts tomorrow. It’s basically a must-win game for us. We have to give it our all tomorrow.”
The Grizzlies have not helped themselves either in the bubble, falling to Portland in its opener. Match-ups against San Antonio and New Orleans to follow make it a particularly critical stretch for Memphis.
Prior to practice on Sunday, head coach Alvin Gentry and his staff showed the team not just footage from the Clippers loss but also footage from prior to the lockdown to allow the team to compare the differences between what was working pre-lockdown and what has gone wrong in the bubble.
“Based on the film, you can see that we’re two different teams right now compared to how we were before the break verse how where we are now,” Ball said. “Whatever we have to do to get back to how we were playing before, we have to do it whether that’s mentally or just watching more film, I don’t know. Hopefully, we can put it all together before tomorrow.”
The glimmer of hope for the Pelicans is that, after contests with two playoff teams in the Jazz and Clippers to open restart play, the team will only play one more game against a team currently in the playoffs: Monday against the Grizzlies.
Those future contests will be much less meaningful, though, without a win for New Orleans on Monday.
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