Pelicans at Mavericks
Injuries are beginning to ruin a promising season for the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans will again be without Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday when they wrap up the second end of a home-and-home set by visiting the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. The Mavericks dominated the first meeting and came through with a 107-90 win at New Orleans on Friday.
Anderson missed the first nine games of the season and Anthony Davis went down for seven shortly after Anderson‘s return, leaving the Pelicans with little time to enjoy their full compliment of talent. Anderson went down again with a herniated disc in his neck last week and New Orleans dropped to 0-4 since that injury with Friday’s loss. The Mavericks stumbled into the weekend with losses in three of four but led start to finish against the Pelicans as Dirk Nowitzki bounced back from his worst game of the season with 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FSN New Orleans, FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE PELICANS (15-20): Anderson is out indefinitely and now Holiday is down as well for an indeterminate amount of time after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right tibia on Friday. Brian Roberts started in Holiday’s spot at the point but struggled through foul trouble and finished with nine points, seven rebounds and one assist in 25 minutes. One of the few bright spots in Friday’s loss came from Austin Rivers, who scored 12 points off the bench and figures to get a bigger dose of playing time during Holiday’s absence.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (21-16): Dallas crushed the Los Angeles Lakers 110-97 on Tuesday to snap a four-game home losing streak but is searching for some consistency on the offensive end. The Mavericks have been held to 90 or fewer points in three of six games this month while putting up at least 107 points in the other three contests. The team’s consistency mirrors Nowitzki, who is averaging 11.7 points in the three low-scoring contests while pushing that number to 25 points in the three games in which Dallas has gone over the century mark this month.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Friday’s win gave the Mavericks five straight wins in the series.
2. Davis scored 21 points on Friday and has gone for 20 or more in four of the last five games.
3. Dallas F Shawn Marion (shoulder) is expected to miss his third straight game on Saturday.