NBA Games of the Week: Team names only
By Chazz Scogna
Thursday, Nov. 9: New Orleans at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. ET
Dr. Alan Grant postulated birds and dinosaurs were closely related. In fact, birds have been widely accepted as descended from dinosaurs, including the pelican. In 2010, there was a discovery archaeologists theorized as proof pelicans were pelicans as far back as 30 million years ago. So yep, anytime you see Pierre the Pelican, you’re quite literally walking with dinosaurs.
The non-Jurassic Pelicans are destroying teams when both Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins share the floor. In 188 minutes, they’re scoring 1.175 points per possession, per nbawowy.com, which would be just behind the Warriors for best in the league. Their net rating of just over plus-10 would be second as well.
It’s when they’re off the floor the Pelicans fall apart. Take either off, and the team’s production falters. Their offensive rating is 92.2 with Davis on and Cousins off and 106.5 when it’s vice versa. Even worse, though it’s happened for only 21 minutes, the Pelicans become only a sliver better than the Chicago Bulls.
The Raptors, Dr. Grant’s favorite dinosaur, are more fun when they launch 3-pointers. They trickled off from their 44-attempt outburst against the Sixers, and they still can’t make them, but at the worst it shows they’re finally adapting (the evolutionary participles write themselves) to the league. They’re finally enjoying a stretch of home games after a brutal six games out west. If they can survive the onslaught of Boogie and Davis, then their superior bench and depth should help separate them.