Pelicans play-in tournament shootaround update: New Orleans depth again vital with playoff berth at stake

The season is hanging in the balance, but New Orleans doesn’t have all of its top players available. It’s a familiar scenario for the Pelicans, who have not been at full strength in the postseason during the three seasons of Willie Green’s tenure as head coach. Zion Williamson’s hamstring injury means New Orleans will try to advance to the playoffs Friday vs. Sacramento (8:30 p.m., TNT, WRNO 99.5 FM, KGLA 105.7 FM) without its leading scorer in 2023-24. The winner of Kings-Pelicans will visit Oklahoma City in Game 1 of Round 1 on Sunday night.

“We are deep,” Jonas Valanciunas said after Friday’s shootaround when asked how the Pelicans can make up for Williamson’s injury absence. “Yes, Z is a big part of what we do. But now we’ve all got to step up and do the job. Simple to say, not simple to do. But what else can we do? We’ve got to step out and play free, play our basketball, stay humble, play hard, as we always do.”

Other notes from shootaround, which was held for the first time all season in the Smoothie King Center:

Asked whether it could be beneficial for the Pelicans to have their morning shootaround in the team’s downtown New Orleans arena, instead of at the Metairie practice facility, Valanciunas grinned and said, “If we win, yes. If we (don’t), no. Simple as that. We’ve just got to be ourselves.” …

Valanciunas has been part of the play-in round in every year of its existence, including in the 2020 Orlando bubble with a different format than the current one. Friday will be his eighth career play-in game.

“Experience is good, but I’m trying to avoid that,” he said of participating in more play-in games than any NBA player. “It is what it is. We can’t choose our path. Right now we’ve got this (as a way to reach the playoffs). We have to do everything we can to be successful with this path.”

Valanciunas on Kings double-double machine Domantas Sabonis: “He’s the most important guy for Sacramento. We’ve got to eliminate him, make his life hard, not just scoring, passing ability, rebounding. That’s my job to take away easy stuff. You’re not going to take away everything – he’s a great player. But you’ve got to make life hard for him.”

SACRAMENTO (46-36, 9TH SEED IN WEST)

Tuesday play-in win vs. Golden State

De’Aaron Fox, Keon Ellis, Keegan Murray, Harrison Barnes, Domantas Sabonis

Notes: Kevin Huerter (left shoulder surgery) and Malik Monk (right knee sprain) are out. … Murray scored 32 points against the Warriors on Tuesday and drained eight three-pointers, one of the best games of his two-year NBA career. … As is the case for New Orleans, Sacramento has several contributors with just one playoff series under their belt, a seven-game first-round defeat vs. Golden State in 2023. … Fox, Barnes and Sabonis were the only Sacramento players to appear in all five head-to-head meetings with New Orleans this season, but eight Kings played in four of those games.

NEW ORLEANS (49-33, 7TH SEED IN WEST)

Tuesday play-in loss vs. LA Lakers

CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Jonas Valanciunas

Notes: Williamson (hamstring) is out. He scored 40 points against the Lakers on Tuesday, one of the best games of his four-year NBA career. … Only five New Orleans players appeared in all five head-to-head meetings with Sacramento this season, with Jones and Valanciunas being the only first-stringers to do so. The others to participate in all five victories were Dyson Daniels, Naji Marshall and Cody Zeller. … New Orleans is trying to make the playoffs for a second time over a three-year span for the first time since it qualified in both 2009 and 2011.

SCORCHING VS. SACRAMENTO
Some of New Orleans’ individual shooting numbers in five head-to-head games vs. Sacramento during the regular season look like misprints. McCollum made 70 percent of his three-point attempts in high volume (19 of 27); Ingram shot 56 percent from deep; Jose Alvarado sank half of 18 attempts; Murphy nearly did the same (46 percent at 12/26). If the Pelicans even approach their head-to-head shooting splits of 55/45/81 against the Kings in Friday’s win-or-go-home game, they stand a good chance of traveling to the Sooner State on Saturday.
NEXT MAN UP
Injuries to Williamson and Sacramento’s Monk and Huerter mean larger responsibilities for each team’s bench and players filling bigger roles than they did in the previous Pelicans-Kings matchups. New Orleans finished the regular season ranked second in bench plus-minus, while Sacramento ranked 10th.
MATCHUP TO WATCH
At center, Valanciunas has held his own this season against Sabonis, a fellow member of the Lithuanian national team. Sabonis recently compiled a historic double-double streak not seen in the NBA since the days of Wilt Chamberlain, but Valanciunas has also averaged more than 10 and 10 against the Kings in 2023-24 (14.2 points, 11.4 rebounds).