Previewing New Orleans Pelicans Lineup vs. Dallas Mavericks

Tonight, two teams whose seasons thus far have been devastated by injury will take the court as the Dallas Mavericks travel to take on the New Orleans Pelicans. These woes will continue into the 7 p.m. CST matchup as each team has several players listed as out. For the Mavericks, who will be down Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Dereck Lively II, it will be vitally important to defend as they attempt to overcome yet another evening missing their two best offensive players. The Pelicans, who are down Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Herb Jones, will also have to make do with who is available.

At point guard for New Orleans will be Dejounte Murray, who was injured for a significant amount of time at the beginning of the season after fracturing his hand on opening night, and missing 17 games. Though efficiency hasn't been there for Murray since his return at the end of November, he has still managed to score 16.7 points per game on top of 6.5 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game, making him one of the most versatile guards in the NBA when healthy because of his facilitation and prowess on the boards.

At the other guard spot is CJ McCollum, a combo who can play both on and off the ball, but who has moved off the ball with the emergence of Murray as the primary initiator. He balances out Murray's weakness of shooting from deep by connecting on 37% of his own attempts from beyond the arc, and though he isn't quite the defender that Murray is, he can make up for it by providing more efficient scoring out of the backcourt.

The forward grouping will be made up of Trey Murphy III and Javonte Green, who will step in for the injured Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, respectively. Murphy III is a budding star in the NBA whose season has featured a career-high in points (21.9) and assists (2.8), putting him in likely consideration for the NBA's Most Improved Player in 2024-25. His upswing is a silver lining to the Pelicans' truly unfortunate injury luck, as it's obvious he simply needed more minutes. Green has also seen a decent amount of floor time this year as a second-string forward, considering the constant state of flux for Williamson.

At center will be Yves Missi, a rookie who has climbed the Kia Rookie Ladder throughout this entire 2024-25 campaign, currently sitting second on the list, which you can find here. The first-year big out of Baylor has been another one of the very few bright spots for the Pelicans in 2024-25, whose absences have caused them to start the season with nine wins to 32 losses. Missi has had a very Dereck Lively II-esque impact on the franchise, not in terms of wins and losses (due to circumstances), but in terms of role and production. He's putting up 9.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks on 55.7% from the field and has anchored the Pels' frontcourt since early on in the year.

Off the bench will be guards Jose Alvarado, Brandon Boston, and Jordan Hawkins, as well as bigs Daniel Theis and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. Because of the nature of the teams' injury situations, it's hard to predict the outcome of a game that could truly go either way. The facts are the facts, however: Dallas needs this game much more than the Pelicans do, as the Mavericks are clearly a playoff team when healthy, and the Pelicans are too far behind to make up ground at this point.

Still, the necessity for victory doesn't guarantee anything, especially considering the way this Dallas team has performed over the last couple of weeks. While it would be very bad timing, losing to a team that has yet to reach double-digit wins by mid-January is not out of the question for these Mavericks. If they're going to help put a dent in this recent slump, they will have to get production from guys like Quentin Grimes and Naji Marshall, the second of whom is going up against his former team. Maybe a return trip to the Smoothie King Center will awaken something in Marshall and help the Mavs secure a road victory.

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