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Surging Pelicans to test themselves vs. Cavs (Jan 02, 2017)
A few days at home was all the New Orleans Pelicans needed to at least temporarily turn their season around. Now one of the league's hottest teams will have to tangle with the defending champions to keep it going.
The Pelicans spent most of this season digging out of an 0-8 start to the season, but they enter Cleveland on Monday winners of four straight to match their longest streak of the season. They went 4-1 on a recently concluded homestand that coach Alvin Gentry said would be key in keeping the Pelicans on the cusp of playoff contention.
Now they are. New Orleans is one of four teams clogged around the eighth seed as the season nears the midway point.
"We have to do whatever we can to try to make the playoffs," Gentry told the New Orleans Times Picayune. "There's a lot of basketball left, but what we have to try to do is put ourselves in a position that if we play good basketball we'd be one of those teams (in the playoffs)."
The Pelicans waived swingman Reggie Williams on Sunday three weeks after acquiring him when injuries were piling up. Williams, 30, appeared in only five games and averaged 5.0 points and 1.2 rebounds with the Pelicans.
It may not take them long to fill the roster spot. Both ESPN and Yahoo reported the Pelicans are nearing a deal with forward Donatas Motiejunas that could be announced as early as Monday.
New Orleans will face a wounded Cavs team that is still finding ways to win. They beat the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday without their starting backcourt of Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith, who remains sidelined for the next few months with a fractured wrist.
Irving missed the game with a right hamstring injury and is considered questionable for the Pelicans. Cleveland responded with a combined 30 points from little-used role players Kay Felder and Jordan McRae, who made his second career start in place of Irving. McRae will likely remain in the starting lineup if Irving again can't go.
Ever since he took a week off last month to rest tired legs, Irving's assist numbers have been soaring. He has averaged 10 assists over his last seven games, boosting his season average to 6.0. That puts him on par with his career-high of 6.1 set the year before LeBron James returned to Cleveland.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue told Irving long ago to stop worrying about assist totals and instead attack the basket, knowing full well that Irving's style of play would open things up for him to facilitate once he got in the lane. It has taken time, but Irving is now getting his shots and setting up teammates the way Lue believed he could all along.
"I don't think he can come down and just control the game with his passing like Jason Kidd or Magic or someone like that. He has to look to score, attack and be aggressive," Lue said. "Then when he gets into the paint, that's when his passing opens up. When he comes off looking to pass, it makes it tough on a lot of people. I want him to be aggressive looking to score and that will open up his passing for him."
