National Basketball Association

New Orleans Pelicans Without Tyreke Evans Tonight Versus Raptors

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:49 p.m. ET

Fansided, Rick Stone/FanSided via Pelican Debrief

The New Orleans Pelicans will be without key guard Tyreke Evans off the bench for tonight’s contest against the Toronto Raptors.

The sledding will be a bit tougher for the New Orleans Pelicans tonight against the Toronto Raptors.

New Orleans will be without their key point guard off the bench in Tyreke Evans. The team announced today that he will be out for tonight’s contest, for resting purposes.

Tyreke has been a key part of the Pelicans’ bench offense in their recent stretch. Evans has put up at least 10 points in nine of New Orleans’ past 15 games. That is a big part of the offense to be lacking, especially against one of the elite out East.

However, Toronto will have injury issues of their own to deal with. Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan will miss the game for the Raptors. DeRozan’s injury is a sore right ankle.

DeMar DeRozan (sore right ankle) is out tonight vs #Pelicans.

— Daniel Sallerson (@dsallerson) January 31, 2017

The Raptors come into tonight’s game struggling, winning just one of their past seven games. The loss of their top scorer in DeRozan, who has been averaging 27.8 points per game this year, is a tough blow for the opponents. However, the overall talent off the bench Evans brings is still a mighty blow to come back from, in New Orleans case.

The task of replacing Evans will likely come down to Tim Frazier. Tim has played in just four games in the month of January, not eclipsing 12 minutes in any of those contests. He will face major minutes against Cory Joseph, who is the backup to Kyle Lowry. Joseph’s having a strong year and will be a tall task for Frazier.

However, Tim averages 9.3 points and 6.3 assists per game, mainly from his fantastic play at the beginning of the year. It is not farfetch’d for him to have a great game overall, even against a talented foe like Joseph.

The loss of Evans is a big one for New Orleans. However, the option of Tim Frazier is a much better situation than Toronto looking to replace their best scorer. If the Pelicans can manage the situation well and execute their gameplan, they could steal a win against a very good team. This may be a surprise to say, but without Tyreke Evans, the New Orleans Pelicans still have a decent shot at an upset win tonight in Canada.