Cavs – Hawks, and therefore Clippers – Pelicans. Here are the two posters that will be offered to us on Friday evening for the last projection of this 2022 play-in tournament, with the huge stakes being the last qualifying place for the Playoffs. We tell you about the match-up in the East right here, and we tell you about the one in the West… well, just below.
As in the East, the logic of the classification will therefore have been respected during this first round of the play-in of the East. The Clippers lost to the fury of the Wolves, the Pelicans beat the Spurs too limited, and we will therefore have the poster that many were waiting for eighth place: to my left the Los Angeles Clippers, 44 victories and 38 losses in the regular season, and to my right the Pelicans, 36 wins and 46 losses from October to April. In the figures, a match-up not necessarily balanced, especially since the Clippers have done most of the season – and therefore their record – without a Paul George who has been back in business for two weeks, but the arrival of CJ McCollum at NOLA in February reshuffled the cards and automatically made the Pels a much more competitive team. We will therefore be entitled to a real basketball match, between two squads with very different profilesand if a potential elimination of the Californians would undoubtedly put at the heart of the debate the question of the uncertain mathematical logic of the play-in, the presence of the men of Willie Green in the Playoffs would however not be illogical.
Two different team profiles. The Clippers? They will evolve at home and will rely on an experienced group, experienced in Playoff games and author for twenty months of several dantesque comebacks testifying to the heart of this team. Reggie Jackson, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris, so many solid veterans in the relay of Paul George, and all around the potential X factors (Terance Mann, Ivica Zubac, Luke Kennard) capable of tipping a match. Solid all that, but opposite will therefore stand a team of Pels with firepower, as talented in attack as they are tough in defense. Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum are two All-Star level players or not, Jonas Valanciunas has the trunk and the mimins to strap Zubac to a radiator, while the bayou can also count on a supporting cast of choice to add puntos (Devonte’ Graham or the rookies Jones, Alvarado and Murphy). The last three named who have the particularity of being the spearheads of the defense of NOLA, the incredible Herb Jones in the lead, while Jaxson Hayes and even Brandon Ingram do not give their part to the dog in their part ground.
A style opposition therefore, and a match which promises to be intense and balanced, quite the opposite of the series of Playoffs which will follow. Because it is necessary to say the terms: the gift offered to the winner has a good chance of being a sweep in good and due form by the Suns But we’ll talk about that this weekend.