The New Orleans Pelicans only sit two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with a 29-27 record, but the postseason could not feel further away right now.
The Pellies have lost four of their last six games, the Oklahoma City Thunder made all the right moves at the trade deadline and even the skidding Phoenix Suns have a healthy team at their disposal. Without MVP candidate Anthony Davis in the lineup, New Orleans’ playoff hopes seem to be slipping away.
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Davis aggravated his shoulder injury against the Miami Heat Saturday, and an MRI revealed a right shoulder sprain that will keep him sidelined for 1-2 weeks. Ryan Anderson sustained a knee injury in that same game, so even though the Pelicans won that contest to stop a four-game skid, they may have lost the bigger battle now that Anderson will miss 2-4 weeks with a sprained MCL.
Jrue Holiday has been out since Jan. 12 with a stress reaction in his lower right leg and won’t be re-evaluated for another two and a half weeks. No offense to Tyreke Evans, who has been phenomenal running the point guard position for the Pellies in Holiday’s stead, but it’s unreasonable to expect him to carry this team for the next few weeks when even the mighty Anthony Davis was having problems doing so…with a completely healthy roster.
Making matters worse, Evans has mostly struggled so far in the month of February, shooting less than 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from three-point range. With the Pellies missing the NBA-leader in Player Efficiency Rating (the Brow) and one of the best bench scorers in the league (Anderson), the next few weeks could make or break their 2014-15 season.
Anthony Davis still thinks Pelicans can stay in playoff contention without him http://t.co/DTJuYGd931 via @nolanews
— John Reid (@JohnReid64) February 23, 2015
Assuming fate is kind, we’ll say Davis and Anderson only miss the next two weeks. In that span, the Pelicans have the following games on their slate: vs. Brooklyn Nets, vs. Miami Heat, at Denver Nuggets, at Dallas Mavericks, vs. Detroit Pistons, vs. Boston Celtics, vs. Memphis Grizzlies and at Milwaukee Bucks.
None of those are “gimmes,” and even if NOLA somehow finds a way to play .500 basketball through that stretch, the return of AD and Anderson won’t necessarily save the Pelicans from a brutal end-of-March schedule (vs. Milwaukee, three straight road games against the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, vs. the Houston Rockets).
The Pelicans have bolstered their roster depth recently with the additions of Norris Cole, Dante Cunningham and Quincy Pondexter. But a starting lineup of Evans, Eric Gordon, Pondexter, Alexis Ajinca and Omer Asik doesn’t exactly inspire fear in anyone.
To be fair, Gordon played very well in January after returning from injury. But he’s been hit or miss so far in February, trading 30-point performances for bad shooting nights that have leaft him in single digits in the scoring column for four of his nine games this month.
Looking at their competition for the eighth spot, there’s still an extremely small sliver of hope for the Pelicans. The Thunder have won six straight games and bolstered their bench at the trade deadline by dealing for Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin and Kyle Singler. But Kevin Durant is out for at least a week after a new foot procedure and that foot is starting to look like a recurring problem.
As for the Suns, they’ve lost eight of their last nine games and are in full tailspin after a climactic trade deadline saw them trade away one-third of their roster. Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight might mesh together long-term, but the Suns didn’t add any defense or rebounding at the deadline and are a long shot to make the postseason.
Unfortunately, with injuries to the Brow, Anderson AND Holiday, the Pelicans will need to play inspired basketball over the next few weeks in order to keep their already faint playoff hopes alive.
Last night’s win against the Toronto Raptors despite being severely shorthanded shows the Pellies aren’t going down without a fight. Rallying from an 18-point deficit with Davis, Holiday and Anderson all sidelined, especially against the second-best team in the East, was a good sign.
But any time you need to depend on hot streaks from guys like Luke Babbitt and Norris Cole to make the postseason in a historically brutal Western Conference, that probably isn’t going to end well for you.
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