New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for shorthanded loss to the Clippers
New Orleans Pelicans vs. LA Clippers: Player Grades for the small forwards
Small Forwards
C+. . Small Forward. New Orleans Pelicans. BRANDON INGRAM
Brandon Ingram had a tough night shooting the ball, especially in the first half when he really looked to be pressing.
Ingram was asked to carry the offensive load with Zion out, and he tried, taking pretty much all of the Pels shots in the first quarter before NAW started cooking.
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Ingram only shot two 3-pointers the entire game and really disappeared down the stretch.
The problem the Pelicans are having right now is getting Ingram shots within the flow of the offense rather than out of isolation.
They tend to go through these stretches of iso ball for a few minutes every game. The ball stops moving and suddenly everything is about Ingram, which often leads to high degree of difficulty shots.
I thought the Pels really made a mistake in the 3rd quarter by repeatedly going to Ingram even though they were getting good looks out of the Kira Lewis Jr. pick-and-roll.
SVG needs to get Ingram more shots out of the offense and not rely so much on isolation.