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New Orleans point guard Jrue Holiday missed the first 12 games of the season to care for his wife, but is expected to play Friday night. The Pelicans need Holiday to play as a star, which could pay dividends in FanDuel NBA play and turn around a 2-10 start to the year.
Jrue Holiday has played in just 53.9 percent of the possible regular season games since being acquired by New Orleans four years ago.
The Pelicans were even compensated $3 million for Philadelphia’s failure to disclose the extent of the stress fractures in his lower right leg.
The 26-year-old has missed the first 12 games of the regular season this year for an entirely different reason.
Holiday was granted an indefinite leave of absence to tend to his ailing wife, as she underwent a surgical procedure to remove a benign tumor from her brain after giving birth to their daughter over the summer.
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Once she received a clean bill of health, Holiday participated in Thursday’s practice, his first with the team this season, and for was left off the latest injury report issued by the team.
The 6-foot-4 guard is expected to play Friday night as the Pelicans host Portland, hoping to revitalize the offense.
The team is scoring just 99.7 points per 100 possessions, down from 105.6 points a season ago. The differential is ranking as the 18th most efficient offense down to the 26th this season.
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Shooting from 3-point range has been the primary weakness of the Pelicans offense this year. The team is shooting just 29.1 percent from beyond the arc, the lowest percentage in the NBA and only the Suns, Pistons and Wizards are converting fewer shots from 3-point range a night.
Holiday converted 87 shots from 3-point range a year ago, the most of any player returning to the team.
Long range shooting isn’t Holiday’s primary means to score the ball, he is much more efficient creating shots for himself, or teammates off the dribble.
New Orleans is hoping Holiday can quickly establish the pick-and-roll game with Anthony Davis after experiencing so much success off the play a year ago.
Holiday scored 536 points as the ball handler in pick-and-roll situations, the ninth highest total in the league and the only one to total more than 500 while playing fewer than 75 games.
For the second consecutive season, Davis is leading all player in points scored off the pick-and-roll as the player rolling to the basket, scoring 88 points off 80 such plays.
Davis has been in desperate need for a secondary scoring punch all season. During a loss to the Lakers Saturday night, the four other starters for the Pelicans totaled just 16 points on 7-of-24 shooting (29.1 percent) from the field.
Once Holiday was able to abandon the minutes restriction imposed on him following a surgery to correct his stress fracture issues, he played at an All-Star level during the second half of the season.
Holiday posted averages of 21.2 points, 7.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game following the All-Star break.
The Pelicans are hoping he can produce at a similar level to reverse a terrible start to the season and the primary beneficiaries could be any FanDuel NBA lineup featuring him.