Week 3 Must-Watch Lottery Affairs

Here are five must-watch games in the lottery landscape during Week 3 of the NBA season.

The early lotto landscape has had its fair share of surprises thus far. The New Orleans Pelicans are among the league’s win-less teams, while the Pistons look primed to be this year’s surprisingly competitive squad. The Celtics and Grizzlies, both of whom made the playoffs last season, have also gotten off to slow starts in 2015. Monday night featured two lovable lottery match-ups in Magic versus Pacers and Blazers versus Nuggets, but this week’s article was pushed back a day.

TUESDAY, NOV. 10

Mavericks vs. Pelicans

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These tweets speak to the strength of the West, and as a result, many are beginning to give up on the 0-6 Pelicans’ playoff chances two weeks into the season. They have been a disaster defensively thus far minus Omer Asik, Quincy Pondexter, and Norris Cole. Meanwhile, Jrue Holiday has a minutes limit and isn’t playing in back-to-backs.

Considering injuries and the fact that New Orleans has played the defending champs twice already, it’s hardly surprising that the Pels defense ranks second to last in the league in points allowed per game and points allowed per shot.

While Tyreke Evans may not be a great defender due to his tendency to fall asleep off the ball, his absence has been a huge part of why New Orleans ranks 11^th in the league in points per game, but only 19^th in points per shot. Anthony Davis is a monster, and he can pretty much do whatever he pleases on the basketball court to a large extent. However, he hasn’t been able to get the open looks and easy put-backs that will come with the health of Holiday and Evans and an improved defense that results in more transition opportunities.

Davis also hasn’t shown much of a post-up game, and he is spending a lot of time playing isolation-ball the exact opposite of what we all figured we’d be seeing from the Alvin Gentry-led Pelicans. The Mavericks beat the Pelicans on Saturday night behind another dynamic display from Dwight Powell, whose game has gelled well with Dirk Nowitzki.

Dallas is one of those teams that most of us ruled out of the projected playoff pool for obvious reasons such as age and injury concerns, but coach Rick Carlisle has helped lead them to a 3-3 start. Count me as one of the few folks not jumping off New Orleans’ bandwagon yet. If Holiday’s minutes continue to rise according to plan, Evans makes his return somewhat soon, and the team regains some semblance of health, we could all be laughing about this by season’s end. Assuming Holiday plays, which he didn’t Saturday given that it was the second night of a back-to-back, I’m betting the ball will start to move a little bit better than it has been, Davis will be dominant, and NOLA will earn their first win of the year.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 11

Pistons vs. Kings

Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond are eating off the pick-and-roll, and Drummond has shown some skill in the post as well.

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This doesn’t look like a lottery team anymore led by two likely first-time All-Stars, but the one thing I’m curious about is how much longer it will take before teams start fouling Drummond and making him shoot free throws all night. Meanwhile, Boogieman is back for the Kings, and this match-up between two premier big men is too tasty to overlook even if Detroit kicks their butts.

FRIDAY, NOV. 13

Pacers vs. Wolves

Week two of the Pacers’ small-ball experiment went much better, as Indy went 3-1 against the Pistons, Celtics, Heat, and Cavaliers, losing only to the defending conference champs. Paul George is back, and looking better than ever, at least in my opinion. I think we’re all hoping Andrew Wiggins matches up with P.G. for a large portion of the game.

The Pacers might begin the game big with P.G. playing the three to match up with the Wolves’ super-sized starting five, but they’ll still play small-ball against a Wolves team has yet to feature Karl Anthony-Towns and Gorgui Dieng together in lineups. That’s a lineup I’d like to see from the Wolves, though I can’t really blame them for giving Nemanja Bjelica big minutes at the four. I’m taking the Pacers in this one, as the Wolves will be playing the night before versus the Warriors.

SATURDAY, NOV. 14

Nuggets vs. Suns

Denver and Phoenix have played fairly well thus far, and this match-up between two big lead guards in Emmanuel Mudiay and Eric Bledsoe is bound to be fun. I’m taking the Suns at home in this one, as the Nuggets will be coming off a back-to-back against the Rockets on Friday, but I’m also particularly interested in the battle of the boards between Tyson Chandler and Kenneth Faried, and to see P.J. Tucker presumably cover Danillo Gallinari on the perimeter. Furthermore, Will Barton balled out on Saturday versus the Warriors, and there’s a chance he has solidified his spot in the starting lineup, so I’ll be curious to see how he fares against Brandon Knight.

SUNDAY, NOV. 15

Blazers vs. Hornets

Off-season trade partners meet for the first time. Hopefully Noah Vonleh gets decent burn for the Blazers, who will likely still be without former Hornet Gerald Henderson. Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum all have the green light, and the guns will be out on Sunday. My only hope for watch-ability sake is that both teams spend large portions of the game playing 4-out 1-in.

Personally, I think Al Jefferson might have his way with the Portland big men, but the matchup to watch that may determine the outcome of the game is between Nicolas Batum and Al-Faruq Aminu. The Blazers decided the 26-year-old Frenchman’s days were likely behind him, or that he didn’t fit the timeline for their rebuild perhaps. In any event, Aminu is a legit terror on defense, and he will likely spend plenty of time covering Batum.

I’m taking the Hornets at home in this one for the simple reason that I’m guessing Portland comes back down to Earth this week on offense, making their holes on defense all the more noticeable.