January 13th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Dallas Mavericks - 23-16

Zion Williamson out, three Pelicans questionable for Saturday's game#Pelicans | @MorrisBartLLC https://t.co/3dijAxLVHu

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 13, 2024

This is why I'm so confused about why everyone played yesterday. We knew we had a game today, we knew yesterday was the closest thing you actually get to a schedule loss, we knew that Dallas are a divisional rival, we knew that Dallas was going to be without Luka because that was reported in advance, and yet we played the schedule loss with everyone anyway and now guys are resting today in the game we should actually win.

Baffling, in some ways. Makes sense in others, but still, I don't like it overall.

Last game we lost. It is what it is. We got massively outrebounded, JV wasn't able to dominate the glass as much as unusual, BI couldn't get into a scoring rhythm, Trey Murphy shot 25% from 3, it wasn't great. Collective let-down, but these games happen.

Tonight, for the reasons listed above, you hope for a bounce back. Zion is out, but the other guys might play, and if they do, we should still be looking overcome a shorthanded Mavericks team. They currently share a 23-16 record, so this is an important game in the playoff standings overall, in addition to the divisional ones.

Let's see if the team can bounceback.