Keep in mind that this article was written on July 30th, not August 5th.
This is the day that basketball fans around the world have been waiting for about 4 months…the restart of the 2019-20 season at Disney World is tonight. I’m excited to watch players take the hardwood and to celebrate, I’m dropping my predictions for both of tonight’s games. However, it’s not just any prediction. If you remember the article I wrote talking about MLB’s Opening Day exactly a week ago, it’s going to be like that. First, we are going to jump into the Utah Jazz taking on the rising New Orleans Pelicans. Then, we are going to get into the night-capper, which is the battle of Los Angeles. So far this season, the Clippers took two out of three games against. Will the Lakers tie the series up or will the Clippers be victorious once again? Let’s find out.
The Utah Jazz have a great and full squad going to Orlando. They still have their core pieces in Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, who combined for 19.7 PPG. Additionally, they have the sharpshooting duo of Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanović, Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, and even Royce O’Neal. Now over the Pelicans, who got some really good pieces from the Anthony Davis trade to the Lakers. The combo of Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram have been lighting it up on the floor. Ball has probably had his best season to date, averaging 12.4 PPG, 7 APG, 6.2 RPG and is shooting nearly 40% from three. Ingram is also having his best season to date, and it’s not even close. He’s averaging 24.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 4.3 APG, and is shooting about 47% from the field. But, we can’t talk about the Pelicans without Zion Williamson. However, he is a game-time decision for tonight’s game, but let’s just mention him for the fun of it. In 19 games, he’s averaging 23.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 2.2 APG. Now let’s get into the game, and even though Williamson is out of this game, the Pelicans come out firing out of the gates. Ball and Ingram get a couple of points on the board, while JJ Redick splashes home about a few threes. The Pelicans have a nice sizable lead by the end of the quarter. On the other side, Quin Snyder (the head coach of the Jazz) is rallying his guys to get in transition more and take some high-percentage shots instead of chucking up threes. The Jazz received his message and turned up in the second quarter. Gobert is grabbing every rebound and kicking out to his teammates, who weave through the defense and make some crafty buckets. At the end of the first half, the Jazz are only down two to the Pelicans. Coming out of the locker room, both teams are looking to outplay each other to the much needed win. For the second half, it was back and forth until about 20 seconds are left in the 4th quarter and the Pelicans are up by three. The Jazz call a timeout to draw up a 3-point play. The whistle blows and the Pelicans double-team Mitchell to make sure that he doesn’t get the ball, but what they don’t notice is the clutch Bogdanović curling to the top of the key. He’s 2 for 2 on buzzer-beaters this season, but doesn’t convert the wide open look. The Pelicans steal a big win by the score of 120-117 as they look to cement their place in the playoffs. Now, over to the battle of LA, where it’s just as good as the other times they met this season.
This matchup will likely be a Western Conference Finals matchup in my eyes just because of how good these teams are. On the Lakers, you have the dynamic duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who had a combined average 26.2 PPG so far this season. Along with that, they have some insane depth. They have the sharpshooting tandem of Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, Quinn Cook, and Markieff Morris. On the other side, the Clippers have another dynamic duo in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, who had a combined average of nearly 24 PPG. Like the Lakers, the Clippers also have amazing depth. They had a great role player in Ivica Zubac, the king of defenders in Patrick Beverly, the 3-pt shooting Landry Shamet, Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris. Now, let’s hop into the game. Throughout, it’s high scoring and it’s back and forth. Let’s fast-forward now to the 4th quarter, where the Clippers are leading 130-129 with about 30 seconds left on the clock. Frank Vogel calls a timeout and tries to draw up a play that could get the Lakers a clutch bucket. However, Patrick Beverly had other ideas. Davis tries to inbound the ball to Danny Green, but Beverly reads the play like it’s the oldest trick in the book and gets the steal. The game now shifts to intentionally fouling and making or missing free throws. The Lakers send Leonard and Shamet to the line and they’re a combined 4-4 from the stripe. This seals it for the Clippers, as they walk away with a win and bragging rights in LA.
Sources: basketball-reference.com, sportingnews.com