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Pelicans likely to get extended look at Nate Robinson and Bo McCalebb

LEXINGTON – Neither player has been a member of the New Orleans Pelicans for more than two days, but out of necessity, point guards Bo McCalebb and Nate Robinson will be running the team’s offensive attack for extended time Saturday vs. Sacramento. With preseason starting point guard Jrue Holiday on a restriction of 10 minutes per game, expect to see a large dose of some combination of the players, who signed Thursday and Friday, respectively.

“With the injury situation the way it is, we want to get some guys some time on the floor, to see how they can respond to playing in situations like this, especially the new guys,” Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry said. “We want to get Bo and Nate some minutes on the court. Now obviously it’s going to be tough to execute some of the things that we want, because they’ve been here for one practice, but we’ll just see how that goes. The main thing is we’ve got to try to play hard and compete. We’ll work on all the other stuff as it comes.”

Saturday’s game vs. Sacramento could be another prime opportunity for a handful of training camp invitees to show what they can do, because seven Pelicans are sidelined – all returning veterans from last season’s playoff team. In addition to McCalebb and Robinson, wing players Chris Douglas-Roberts, Bryce Dejean-Jones and Sean Kilpatrick could see significant minutes, along with frontcourt reserve Jeff Adrien.

Other notes from pregame Saturday:

  • The Kings and Pelicans probably will approach this game from completely different perspectives. Since Sacramento is playing its final preseason game and doesn’t open the regular season until Oct. 28, Gentry expects the Kings to use something similar to a regular rotation.
  • Gentry on what Anthony Davis can work on over the remainder of preseason: “He just has to keep continuing to try to get better. We’ve got to get much better in our execution, halfcourt-wise (and) we’ve got to get better running and spacing like we want to have it. That all comes with time.”