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The New Orleans Pelicans won their first do-or-die play-in game on Wednesday, holding off the San Antonio Spurs in a 113-103 victory. With the win, the Pelicans now face another win-or-go-home affair on Friday, this time against the Los Angeles Clippers after they lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier in the week.
New Orleans got big performances from CJ McCollum (32 points), Brandon Ingram (27 points) and Jonas Valanciunas (22 points and 14 rebounds), and this team will need those guys to step up again in order to beat LA to advance to a first-round matchup against the mighty Phoenix Suns. But there's another Pelicans player who will be the true X-Factor in this second play-in game.
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Pelicans' X-Factor vs. Clippers
That would be Herb Jones, the standout rookie out of Alabama who won SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
The Pelicans selected Jones with the 35th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and he has immediately become one of the biggest steals of the draft. On a team that isn't particularly stout defensively, Jones stands out as one of the few defensive stoppers. At 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot wingspan, Jones is a versatile defender who can lock down on and off the ball.
Over at FiveThirtyEight, Mike Prada highlighted Jones' versatility:
Jones is certainly capable of defending many types of stars. He has spent at least 10 minutes guarding 17 players this season, including point guards like Mitchell, Young, Ja Morant and De’Aaron Fox; high-scoring off-guards like Booker and Zach LaVine; and powerful wings like James, Dončić, Anthony Edwards and Pascal Siakam. Only five players rank higher in BBall Index’s “Matchup Difficulty” scale, which combines player tracking data, opponent usage rates and the site’s own player rating metric.
Jones can guard just about anybody thanks to his incredible physical tools. He's long and athletic while also boasting the mobility and instincts to be a disruptor. While he's not the strongest guy, he doesn't get bullied and is able to fight through screens effectively.
We saw Jones' impact against San Antonio. In 37 minutes, the rookie notched 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks while posting a plus-10 in the box score. His defense helped force Spurs star Dejounte Murray into a wretched 5-of-19 shooting performance.
The Pelicans will need that kind of defensive effort against the Clippers on Friday. Paul George, Norman Powell and Reggie Jackson are all players who could see Jones opposite them, and he will do his best to shut down whichever assignment he has. The assumption is he'll start out on George and look to disrupt LA's superstar, which in turn would make life more difficult for the Clippers' entire offense.
It's going to be a tough task for New Orleans to go into Los Angeles and come away with a victory. These two teams matched up at Staples Center toward the end of the season, and the result was a 119-100 Clippers win. While George and Jackson didn't shoot all that well, LA's depth came through, even without Powell playing. The Pelicans also had trouble scoring against the Clippers' strong defense.
New Orleans will need to score better on Friday, an area where Jones can help but is not relied on much after he averaged 9.5 points and 2.1 assists in the regular season. But to have any chance, the Pelicans will need to get stops, and that's where Jones really shines. If the rookie is able to disrupt LA's offensive stars, perhaps McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Co. will be able to do enough offensively to get the win and earn a first-round date with the defending Western Conference champions.
