New York Knicks — Game 6 @ The New Orleans Pelicans
The New York Knicks head down south to the Big Easy and face a New Orleans Pelicans team that has been struggling to find an identity.
You are talking about two of the best young players in the league to start a franchise in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, and yet, the Pelicans are struggling to get any tread on the tires.
This is a team that retooled in the offseason: They got rid of Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe and lost Lonzo Ball in free agency. They acquired Devontae Graham, Jonas Valanciunas, and then Trey Murphy III in the draft. They also replaced head coach Stan Van Gundy with former NBA player Willie Green.
The hope is that this team has constructed a more balanced team that can fit around Zion Williamson and put him in the best position to succeed.
The Knicks are pretty well equipped to take on the Pelicans.
Zion Williamson and Julius Randle had quite a duel the last time these two teams met and I would expect them to continue to put up big numbers.
As for the rest of the Pelicans roster, I have a hard time figuring out how they can effectively contain Kemba Walker, Derrick Rose, RJ Barrett, Alec Burks, Evan Fournier, and Immanuel Quickley – all of the Knicks perimeter scoring options.
The Pelicans can hang tight for the first half of the game but I expect the Knicks to keep rolling in this one and extend their win streak to 5 games.