Regular Season Game 50
Pelicans (19-31) at Wizards (29-20)
February 4, 2017 at 7:00 PM Verizon Center | Washington, DC TV: CSN Mid-Atlantic Radio: 1500 AM
Last time they met was..
January 29, 2016- Smoothie King Center, New Orleans: Wizards 107, Pelicans 94
What to watch:
Lucky Number 7-Teen?
The Wizards are going for their seventeenth straight home win tonight. That’s not luck. Sure, there may be some good fortune involved, but no average team can win seventeen straight at home. With Scott Brooks at the helm, the Wizards are finally turning talent into results. The home win streak is going to end eventually, but at this point, that doesn’t even matter. The Wizards have now spent two full months establishing winning habits and an identity that translates to winning basketball. We’ve been pining for just those two things for YEARS: Identity, and consistency. Next comes….
Key Matchup:
Wizards vs. Expectations
John Wall stated earlier that he believes the goal for this team is the Eastern Conference Finals. And although that’s an admirable goal, I gotta admit, I’m a little disappointed. The statement inherently implies that the Wizards believe they are better than both the Celtics and the Raptors. And the Cavs have shown cracks in their shield that make an upset at least imaginable. Perhaps the rest of us shouldn’t expect more than an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, but I hope the players expect more, and something tells me John Wall secretly does:
Wall may have just been tempering expectations. It’s one thing to win 16 straight home games and go 23-9 for two months under the radar. It’s a lot different to perform so well under the pressure. When this home streak started, we were barely talking playoffs. Now we’re talking Conference Finals. The game done changed.
X-Factor:
Anthony Davis.
It’s been unusual recently for John Wall to be anything other than the best player on the floor. Tonight may be one of those nights. Anthony Davis is averaging 28-12. The Pelicans are an inconsistent, bad, badly constructed basketball team. But Anthony Davis is a ridiculously good basketball player. Good enough to single handedly beat a better team by himself. 36 and 17 against the Wizards last week wasn’t enough. Does AD have a 40-20 game in him tonight? Or a 50-20 game?
He’s done it before…
He’ll do it again. Let’s hope he doesn’t do it tonight.
Fun Factor:
Did I mention the Wizards are going for home win #17 in a row?? What’s more fun than that??
Prediction:
John Wall > AD.