It’s time for Play-in Basketball: Spurs at Pelicans

Welcome to the Game Thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, but for all you newbies we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much.

The play-in is postseason, but it’s not the playoffs. It’s kind of a postseason purgatory, where you can only get into the good place (playoffs) by winning one or two games, depending on your ranking. If the Spurs can beat the Pelicans tonight, they would be halfway there (on a wing and a prayer) to the play-in finale, with a 9:00 PM Friday matchup against the Clippers in Los Angeles, televised on TNT.

The Spurs have had pretty good success this season against the Pelicans, winning 3 out of the 4 matchups, including both games in New Orleans. But Smoothie King Center will be rocking tonight with a playoff-like atmosphere, and the Pelicans are counting on the home crows to propel them to a win tonight. The key matchup tonight might be Jonas Valančiūnas vs. Jakob Poeltl, because the big Austrian will need to stretch his defense to contain the Lithuanian’s range. Jaxson Hayes gives the Pelicans a lot of size in their frontcourt, so Pop might counter with Jock Landale as necessary. Dejounte Murray will have to contain Jose Alvarado who used his size against Tre Jones in the last game to good effect. I have to say that I have a good feeling about tonight, but the Spurs will need to get away from the slow starts they’ve been having recently to keep the crowd out of the game. Let’s all watch the Silver and Black work on becoming the first play-in team to contend for a championship.

Game Prediction:

Zion Williamson will accidentally eat the King Cake Baby. He was just trying to have some cake.

A secret weapon named Keldon
Assisted by our man Murray
As poster dunks well done
Making sad Pelicans worry

One final word:

Go Spurs GOOOOOO!!

San Antonio Spurs at New Orleans Pelicans
April 13, 2022 | 8:30 PM CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: ESPN

Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments, but it is not against site policy to exchange email addresses, for instance.