New Orleans Pelicans: Brandon Ingram’s Revenge
By Tim Burke
New Orleans Pelicans get revenge on the Utah Jazz
Who had the best game? Worst game?
This game was a second-half duel between Brandon Ingram and Donovan Mitchell, with the players scoring 27 and 31 points respectively in the second half and both tacking on five points in overtime. Mitchell put up a great fight with his final stat line of 46 points, six rebounds, two assists, and two steals but that effort wasn’t enough to pass up Ingram.
Ingram had a career-high 49 points, along with eight rebounds, six assists, and one block. Ingram was more efficient from the field, going 15-25 and 3-8 from deep while hitting all 11 of his free throws in regulation. This was an all-around good game for the fourth-year forward who has shown this season why he will get a max contract.
Favors had a game that needs to be mentioned as well; after a solid game in his first matchup with his former team, he filled up the stat sheet with 21 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and three blocks while anchoring the team.
Sadly the worst game also goes to a Pelican. Jaxson Hayes was very efficient in this game, scoring nine points while making all three of his shots and three of four free throws. He added on five rebounds and two assists, with one block and he almost had the dunk of the year when he tried to end Rudy Gobert in the third quarter.
So why does he get the worst game? It’s simple; Hayes had way too many fouls, five in 12:46 of playing time. The last of which set up another controversial ending, which we’ll get to later, just know it wasn’t good.
What was the highlight of the game? Moment?
Brandon Ingram is just racking up the “awards” today taking home the highlight of the game. With 8:25 left to play in the third quarter, Favors sets a screen on Royce O’neil above the three-point line near midcourt. Ingram goes around the pick and accelerates toward the hole, waiting at the free throw line is, who else, Rudy Gobert.
As BI starts to drive he crosses the ball to his left side to protect it from the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, that cross caused Gobert to almost stop as he had to change direction to stay with Ingram. The pause created all the room Ingram would need, he takes two steps after that dribble and starts to elevate.
Because of where Ingram took off, he was going to have to sneak the ball in the back of the rim to not get blocked by Gobert, who at this point is fully recovered and nearly smothering BI. All that’s left now is to throw it down, and boy does Ingram do that, a two-handed reverse slam that sent the arena into a frenzy.
That was the best in a game full of highlights and great dunks, the moment of the game, however, was much more drawn out and created plenty of drama. With just 6.3 seconds remaining in the game the New Orleans Pelicans took a timeout to advance the ball after a missed jumper by Mitchell. In a play very similar to what would become the shot of the season, Ingram got the ball back from Lonzo Ball after the inbounds at the logo.
Ingram drove to his right and towards the Pelicans bench, with two seconds on the clock he raises up and drills a midrange two to take a one-point lead for the Pelicans with 0.2 seconds left. Utah immediately takes a timeout and head coach Quinn Snyder draws up a play, apparently, he wasn’t happy with how the Pelicans lined up to defend this and took his final timeout.
With the only option for Utah to score being a tip-in at the rim, everyone in the building knew what was coming. Instead what we got was a head-scratching foul and another chance for Rudy Gobert to play the villain. As the ball was thrown towards the basket, Jaxson Hayes (here’s that last foul) holds Gobert so that he can’t get a clean look for the tip. The foul is called and confirmed by replay review and Gobert goes to the line with a chance to win the game with free throws.
Luckily he misses the first, so the worst outcome for New Orleans at this point is overtime. Gobert makes the second and we head to overtime. The Pelicans would pull off the win in overtime but this was just another call that went against New Orleans and it was starting to feel like the referees just didn’t like this town.