MINNEAPOLIS – Alvin Gentry jokingly opened his comments to reporters in Minnesota by saying that if any of them want to try to play in an NBA game, the opportunity might be there tonight. Timberwolves TV broadcaster Dave Benz quickly responded, “Is there a game check in it?”
With Luke Babbitt suffering from food poisoning as a result of a meal he had Tuesday night, New Orleans will only have seven players available for its season finale against Minnesota at Target Center. Gentry had not finalized the starting lineup yet, but expects it will be the 42nd different first unit for the Pelicans (30-51) this season.
In alphabetical order, the seven men in uniform for New Orleans will be Omer Asik, Dante Cunningham, Toney Douglas, James Ennis, Tim Frazier, Jordan Hamilton and Kendrick Perkins. The first four players all started Monday’s home finale vs. Chicago, with Frazier, Hamilton and Perkins coming off the bench. Gentry indicated that either Frazier or Hamilton will start, because he needs to replace Babbitt with a perimeter player (Perkins is a center).
That means New Orleans will only have two reserves. As Gentry pointed out, “We just can’t get into foul trouble.”
Other notes from pregame:
Gentry gave this summary of what’s been a difficult, injury-riddled first season as head coach of the Pelicans: “Fortunate for us, this is coming to an end. It’s been a really tough season. Really frustrating, especially with the expectations we had. We just could never get past the injuries we had. This is one of those that you flush down the toilet and move on to what can happen in the future. You can’t linger and think about this season. It’s just one of those years where everything that could go wrong, went wrong.” …
Gentry on Babbitt’s recent performance: “For him, at one stage he was the guy we went to for buckets. I thought he did a great job and came through for us.”