Pelicans, All-Defense Candidates, Suns, and Why Scoring is Down

Zach and ESPN's Andrew Lopez discuss the red-hot Pelicans, Zion's play, Brandon Ingram's unheralded season, and how the Pelicans stack up against each of the West's elite. Then ESPN's Kevin Pelton joins to pick All-Defensive teams, talk Heat, Suns, Magic and Jamahl Mosley's extension, the recent decline in scoring and free throws, Victor Wembanyama, and much more.  Pels are a mystery box and a sleeping giant (6:26) Zion's improved defense and rebounding (10:57) Herb Jones has a case for All-Defense and Most Improved (13:28) The Pelicans' shooting luck defensively (20:13) Not enough talk about Brandon Ingram (27:08) How the Pels match up against other Western Conference playoff teams (33:30) Pelton (40:15) Middle of the East (57:46) 2nd tier All-Defense guys (1:02:47) Thunder in line for the top seed in the West (1:09:14) Wembanyama's All-Defense case (1:15:27) Scoring is down since the All-Star break (1:30:20) Temperature check on the Suns (1:39:46) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices