NBA games of the week: Thinking warm thoughts
By Chazz Scogna
Wednesday, Jan. 10: New Orleans at Memphis, 8:00 p.m. ET
What I respect the most about Pelicans and Grizzlies: One flies south for the winter and the other just sleeps through it. While my girlfriend and I talk about moving out west to California, where the high in San Diego is going to be 71 degrees at the time of this writing, and take turns naming what hurts us the most about winter, the birds and the bears are skipping it entirely. The American White pelican will either travel south or to some desert area, while a bear nuzzles up and sleeps until spring, glorious alternatives to dealing with high winds and window scrapers.
The Memphis Grizzlies continue their free fall. Their last four wins, stretched over the course of about a month, have come against four of the worst teams in the NBA: Hawks, Clippers, Lakers and Kings. There’s not much more to say than I hope the Grizz figure it out.
The New Orleans Pelicans, on the other hand, continue to be exactly what we thought they were: Terrors on offense, nonexistent on defense. The Pellies have climbed to the seventh best offensive rating in the league, but the 25th best defensive rating. As we’ve all seen, teams without a top 10 rating in both offense and defense are rarely contenders. But you don’t need those numbers to know the Pelicans aren’t going to threaten a Western Conference powerhouse in a seven-game series. Saturday against the Timberwolves, they allowed unabated drives to the basket and open shots at all three levels. Their disinterest in defense meant the Wolves eventually led by 34 and never trailed. So it goes with the Pelicans.