Clippers to host Pelicans in Friday’s NBA play-in elimination

Play-in, half two: The Clippers are internet hosting New Orleans with a playoff berth on the road.

The winner within the matchup Friday, at 7 p.m. in Crypto.com Enviornment, will earn the Western Convention’s eighth and closing playoff spot and a first-round sequence in opposition to top-seeded Phoenix. That sequence begins Sunday.

However earlier than both can get to a seven-game sequence starting in Arizona, they’ve one recreation to increase their respective seasons. The Clippers are right here as a result of they misplaced Tuesday’s play-in match recreation between the West’s seventh- and eight-place groups in Minnesota. The Pelicans beat San Antonio on Wednesday evening within the play-in match’s nine-10 recreation, led by C.J. McCollum’s 32 factors and 25 from Brandon Ingram.

New Orleans received the season sequence 3-1, with the lone loss in the newest recreation, a 119-100 Clippers victory on April 3. Although the three earlier video games will affect a few of what the Clippers shall be cautious of — limiting Jonas Valanciunas’ three-point capturing, Ingram’s scoring and minimizing rookie star defender Herb Jones on that finish — the fourth matchup was most vital as a result of it was the one time these groups performed after their rosters modified significantly following February’s commerce deadline.

For the Clippers, which means containing McCollum, acquired in a commerce with Portland. McCollum made simply seven of his 18 pictures within the early April loss and obtained to the free-throw line 4 occasions. Although he scored 19 factors, the Pelicans had been outscored by 21 factors in his 37 minutes due to Clippers reserves, whose protection within the second quarter broke the sport open. The Clippers additionally held Brandon Ingram to three-of-11 capturing whereas Valanciunas — after making 12 of his 17 three-pointers throughout two video games in November – didn’t get off a single three-pointer.

Whereas McCollum performed extra typically off the ball in Portland he’s taken on a lead guard position with New Orleans, his utilization ranking rising from 26% to 29%, and his help share rising from 22% to 31% after the deal.

The Pelicans received’t have confronted the Clippers with considered one of their prime scorers within the lineup: Norman Powell. Powell, one other former Path Blazer offloaded, together with Robert Covington, on the commerce deadline was nonetheless but to return from a fracture in a foot bone throughout the April 3 Clippers victory. That shouldn’t throw a serious wrench into New Orleans’ preparation, nonetheless, as a result of Powell performed New Orleans in November with Portland, and the Path Blazers and Clippers overlap considerably in what they run, and the way, due to relationships between the teaching staffs.