Despite being left out of the services of Paul George, who was not allowed to play in the game after entering the league’s health and safety protocols, the Clippers managed to make a series after falling behind by double digits over Brandon Ingram and the Pelicans . . In the end, however, it was not enough to get the job done, as New Orleans finally came out on top. With the victory, the Pelicans will then compete with the Suns on Sunday night with the opening tip scheduled for 9 p.m. ET. With the defeat, the Clippers see their season ending with something that should be disappointing, given the expectations they had after the addition of George and Kawhi Leonard to their roster. Here are three key points from the game: Select the checkbox to confirm that you want to sign up.
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1. Ingram delivers
About 90 seconds after the game, Brandon Ingram made a mid-range jump to give the Pelicans their first points in the game. A few existing later did it again. And then again, and again and again. He scored 16 points in the first quarter alone, on the way to 30 points, six rebounds and six assists which was one of the best of his youth career. The No. 2 overall pick in 2016, Ingram has never played in a playoff game and entered the play-off tournament determined to change that. “Dude, you feel great,” Ingram said. “Having the opportunity to be in the post-season this year. I have never had a winning record, I have never been in the postseason. Having the opportunity to showcase my talent on the biggest stage is beautiful.” For much of the second half, it looked like Ingram and the Pelicans might not get there. They let a 16-point lead slip away and Ingram was cool with the rest of the team. But after Nic Batum strangled him for stretching, Ingram finally got things in the fourth. He scored seven of his 30 points in the frame and had huge baskets as the Pelicans fought back. This was not an easy season for Ingram, as injuries limited him to 55 games and he had to shoulder much of the attacking burden with Zion Williamson not playing. But she is healthy now, and when the season was at the beginning, she did it in a significant way. “Brandon Ingram is the truth,” said Pelicans head coach Willie Green. “He just brought it. He had this look in his eyes from the moment we got on the plane, to shoot. He’m locked up. He’m waiting right now, right now. His preparation is off the chart. “He believes in his teammates. He’s what you want and more in a player and a man.”
2. The play-in tournament wins
When the NBA first decided to try out the bubble play-in tournament in 2020, no one knew if it was going to be a short experiment or the beginning of a new post-season era. After this week, no more guesswork is needed. The play-in tournament is awesome and it came to stay. It will continue to have its critics because of scenarios like this, where the Clippers lost Paul George for one game and were then eliminated from the playoffs by a team that finished six games behind them in the standings. To be honest, this is not an absurd position, but it will not be enough to affect the league. The play-in tournament improves the regular season by adding extra importance to games that have not made sense for so long, and the revenue generated by the extra national video games is not insignificant. Most importantly, though, real basketball offers great drama. These winning games are all extremely rare in the NBA and we now have a whole week of them. You can see how important it is to win these games for the players and there is nothing better than the emotional high stakes basketball. Just listen to this speech by Willie Green: Friday night’s game was a perfect example. If the NBA wants to support the play-in tournament, it just has to repeat that game in a loop. Or even just the second half, which was one of the best 24 minute basketballs we’ve seen all season. Both teams made a double-digit comeback after the break, as the game reached the final seconds before the Pelicans took it out.
3. The Pelicans’ bench goes up
If all you did was check the statistics of the last match, you would probably go over the bench points section showing the Pelicans beating the Clippers 37-33 in this category. On paper, this is such a small statistical difference that it does not seem noticeable. In practice, however, the Pelicans’ bench was the difference in the game, because they reached the clutch. Larry Nance Jr., Trey Murphy III and Jose Alvarado played big games over and over again to give the Pelicans the key to returning in the fourth quarter and secure the victory. Nance and Murphy played for almost the entire fourth quarter and combined for 13 points, nine rebounds and three assists per frame. Alvarado, meanwhile, had only two rebounds and one assist on the statistics sheet, but his games were crucial to the reversal. After the Clippers’ approach with the small ball surprised the Pelicans in the third quarter, Willie Green also responded by making a small one and played Nance in the center of the line. This proved to be a brilliant move. Nance scrubbed the glass, played strong defense and found some buckets in time. As for Murphy, he did exactly what the team had hoped for when he was selected in the first round last year: turn off the lights. He got three huge three-pointers in the quarter, including one to tie the game with 4:40 remaining, and another to put the Pels seven and essentially seal the game with 2:10 remaining.
