The New Orleans Pelicans are on an unprecedented four-game win streak for this season, three games over the .500 mark for the first time since the early stages of the 2010-11 season.
Given their newfound success and upcoming homestand, the Pelicans seemed poised to take a shot at the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.
"For sure, we're ready," power forward Anthony Davis said. "We need to come out and do the things that we do every day. Every night, night in and night out, make sure that we go out there and defend, rebound, share the ball and play hard. That's all we've got to do, and we can definitely get that spot."
Up until now, the Pelicans have struggled to put together back-to-back wins, let alone a run of victories. But it comes at the perfect time: New Orleans is set to play the majority of their upcoming games over the next few weeks at home in the Smoothie King Center, and they need to lock up a string of victories to outlast the Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Here are three Keys for the Pelicans:
1. Get Healthy:
The Pelicans Ryan Anderson looks like a new player after taking a game off to rest inflammed ankles and get fresh legs. Now, starting point guard Jrue Holiday must triumph in his battle to prevent a stress reaction in his lower right leg from growing more severe and turning into a full-blown stress fracture. It takes patience, but Holiday says he learned from his mistakes last season.
"Last year when I had the stress fracture, there was a time my leg hurt, but I kept playing and kept playing until the bone finally cracked," Holiday said. "That's the dreaded black line on the MRI. Thankfully I'm not there yet this time."
Holiday is in a fair amount of pain though. He describes it as a 5 on a scale of 1-to-10. That's not stopping him from being as active as possible though.
"I can work out my upper body, anything above my torso," Holiday said. "I've also gotten in the water to try to do some lower body things without putting any pressure on my legs."
The pool workouts have achieved mixed success. They are allowing Holiday to have a more diverse rehab regiment, but athletic trainers recently cancelled part of the workout called karaoke, afraid that it was too much too soon. In this case, karaoke refers to a series of side-to-side steps to stretch the hips and legs.
2. Play Consistently:
Last month, the Pelicans were struggling so badly with consistency that they set a historic league low: 75 percent of their games ended with a different outcome than the one before it.
The team's recent road trip up North didn't help: New Orleans lost to Boston, won in Detroit, lost in Philadelphia, won in Toronto and lost in New York.
Since then, as players like Quincy Pondexter added their voices to the chorus of coaches preaching about winning the games they should against sub .500 teams, the Pelicans have stopped playing down to their level of competition.
Now the Pelicans have defeated the Lakers, the Timberwolves, the Mavericks and the 76ers with the Nuggets up next.
"We just don't care who scores the ball," Davis said. "The ball movement has been great. Everybody was rebounding and talking. When you play like that, it's fun to watch. Everybody was out there having fun, smiling. A lot of emotion. That's all we ask, that's all coach asks for and that's what we did tonight."
3. Continue Defensive Improvement:
The Pelicans have also taken a big step forward defensively, which is partially triggered by both time invested and by new additions Dante Cunningham and Pondexter. New Orleans rarely has had an issue scoring, but defensively they've struggled this season, ranking in the bottom half of the league.
Now the Pelicans are the most improved defense in the league from December to January.
Largest Decrease in Opponent Points per Game, December vs. January 2014-15
Team Dec Jan Diff
1. New Orleans Pelicans 104.6 92.9 -11.7
2. Milwaukee Bucks 100.5 89.2 -11.3
3. San Antonio Spurs 104.1 93.8 -10.3
4. Minnesota Timberwolves 107.2 98.1 -9.1
5. Miami Heat 99.8 90.9 -8.9
Coming up, New Orleans welcomes the Denver Nuggets, the LA Clippers, the Atlanta Hawks and the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Smoothie King Center. The only have three road games in February: another matchup with the Thunder, the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat.
