Orlando Magic - New Orleans Pelicans Preview

The NBA starts tonight and one of the first games on is the Orlando Magic versus New Orleans Pelicans. Whilst neither teams made the playoffs or even came close last year, it was still a big development year for both these young sides. Anthony Davis turned in a historic second year for a 20-year-old, whilst guys like Oladipo, Harris, and Vucevic all continued to develop into a nice, young core in Orlando. The Pelicans come into this game with full health (something you couldn’t say often last year) whilst the Magic are missing their young shooting guard Victor Oladipo.

The Pelicans are going to want to get off to a win at home against, on paper, a weaker Orlando Magic team. The teams split the series 1-1 last year. The Magic would be happy with a repeat of that this year while the Pelicans will definitely not as they are looking to make a strong push for the playoffs this year.

Pelicans Keys to Wining the Game:

Keep Vucevic off the Glass: Vucevic averaged 11 rebounds last year and 12 the year before, averaging over three offensive rebounds a year in both. Also he was just outside the top 10 in offensive rebounding. It will take a big effort from Omer Asik and Anthony Davis to keep the Swiss Big off the boards.

Maintaining Tobias Harris: Tobias Harris, whilst being a below average three-point shooter can still hit from deep, and New Orleans should be cautious of him catching some serious heat. Tobias is an elite finisher at the rim shooting well above average at 70 percent last year. This is where he gets the majority of his points. He’s going to run into two of the best interior defenders in Davis and Asik.

Go Through Davis: Anthony Davis is the fastest developing player in the league right now. After coming back from a 13, 8, and 2 average in his first year, Davis came out with a 20, 10, and 3 in his second year. After putting up some serious stats last year, Davis is expected to do more. Whilst looking sharper on defense, Davis is expected to lead the team on offense as well. Davis should have no problem with any of the Magic bigs and should be in for a huge night.

DEFENSE: The Pelicans ranked 27th in defense last year, and this is simply unacceptable. The Pelicans now added another top 5 defender in Omer Asik, which should help. Also another year of the young guys developing and understanding the system should definitely help. The Pelicans health last year also didn’t help this rating.

Predicted Starting Five’s:

Magic:

PG: Elfrid Payton

SG: Mo Harkless

SF: Tobias Harris

PF: Kyle O’Quinn

C: Nikola Vucevic

6th Man: Luke Ridnour/Evan Fournier

Pelicans:

PG: Jrue Holiday

SG: Eric Gordon

SF: Tyreke Evans