New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball can be the Pels’ Draymond Green

New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball is making winning plays

The Pacers’ win over the Pelicans in January was marked by myriad lapses down the stretch. On Friday, this was a focused Pelicans team that trusted each other and knew where to be on the floor.

Ball’s rotation on Brogdon was a precursor to the play that sealed the game for the Pelicans. New Orleans was teetering in the fourth quarter, in danger of giving up yet another lead to the Pacers. After what was essentially a three-point shootout between Ball and the Holiday brothers over the last few minutes, the game came down to Indiana ball and a single possession.

Ball is guarding TJ McConnell but goes under Myles Turner’s screen knowing that McConnell is not a three-point threat. Ball switches on Turner and Steven Adams keeps McConnell busy for a second so that there isn’t a clear lane to the basket. However, when Adams recovers back to Turner, the Indiana center gets the step on him.

Just as it seems that Turner has a clear layup to potentially give the Pacers the win, Ball recognizes the danger and rushes over. He goes up with perfect verticality, not fouling and forcing the miss. Make no bones about it: this was a game-winning play by Ball in a tight game against a playoff-caliber team.

It’s plays like the one above that give me confidence when I say that Ball’s game cannot be weighed only through numbers. All of the little things that he does over the course of a game add up and give the New Orleans Pelicans a greater chance of winning.