Game Preview: Pelicans at Bucks

The New Orleans Pelicans have lost six of their last seven games. This is a good thing considering what all this team has left to play for this disastrous 2015-16 season. I hate that its come to this, but I get it.

With 18 games remaining, the Pelicans' postseason chances are smaller than Ant-Man riding one of Hawkeye's arrows in the new Civil War trailer. There are as many teams ahead of New Orleans competing for the eighth-seed in the West as there are with worse records. And the Pelicans M.O. from here on is to chase the teams below them, not above.

The owners of the sixth-worst record in the entire NBA travel north to Milwaukee tonight in a battle of teams that haven't lived up to preseason assumptions that they'd take the next step in their growth process. The Bucks have been playing respectable basketball since the All-Star break, winning six of their 11 games. Like New Orleans, Milwaukee has suffered their fair, sad share of injuries: O.J. Mayo, Steve Novak, Michael Carter-Williams and Greivis Vasquez have all been lost for the season and John Henson has missed the last 18 games. It's been reported that Henson is a "long shot" to play in tonight's game.

To put it lightly, Milwaukee's challenged in a lot of areas. The Bucks score the seventh-fewest points a game, are a bottom five rebounding team, have the sixth most turnovers per game and are in the middle of the pack in three point shooting.

The good news for both the Bucks and the Pelicans' full fledged tanking plans is that Milwaukee is a vastly better team at home than on the road. (Sound familiar?) With a 19-12 home record, the Bucks score more and shoot the three ball so much better than they do on the road. Combine that with the Pelicans' atrocious 1-9 record on the road against Eastern Conference teams (hey can we talk about why the Pelicans can't beat teams from the East away from home or ...) and tonight doesn't bode well.

But considering what's left to play for, maybe it's the best New Orleans could hope for.