Lonzo Ball led the New Orleans Pelicans to an important win over the Indiana Pacers and once again demonstrated that his value cannot be measured only through stats.
Brandon Ingram scored the most points for the Pelicans in their 113-114 win over the Pacers, but it was Lonzo Ball who shepherded the team to victory.
The former UCLA guard played one of his most thorough games of the season, scoring 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and snuffing Indiana’s offense during the entire game.
After Ball’s big showing against the Milwaukee Bucks, I wrote about how it’s too early for the Pelicans (and their fanbase) to give up on him. The start of the season has been a bit of an adjustment for Ball—having to share backcourt responsibilities with an inconsistent Eric Bledsoe and playing in a new role a lot of the time—but things are seemingly starting to gel for him. More games are needed, but his flashes might be becoming more steady.
The New Orleans Pelicans should look at Ball like how the Warriors see Draymond Green: as someone who will make the plays necessary to win. Neither player is the most natural scorer or offensive threat, but they are great defenders with superior basketball IQs and playmaking savants.
Against the Pacers, Ball set the tone for his overall performance on the defensive end of the floor. Ball has the potential to become one of the NBA’s premier guard defenders. Few guards have his size at 6-foot-6, long arms, mobility, and instincts. Ball is yet to average under a steal per game in his NBA career for a reason. However, it’s important that his defensive impact is not looked at only in stats like steals or blocks.
New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball is an elite defender
Lonzo Ball gave Malcolm Brogdon a tough night on Friday, pestering him incessantly whenever they were matched up defensively. Brogdon only scored 13 points against the Pelicans, his second-lowest mark this season and nine points below his scoring average. So how can it be that Ball had zero steals and only one block?
Ball made every possession Brogdon had a tough one. In the clip above, he stays with Brogdon as he drives right. Then, when Brogdon makes a hard spin left, Ball moves his hips to keep up with the play and contests. Brogdon has to shoot off balance over Ball’s outstretched long arms and doesn’t even hit the rim.
This is only one example of Ball’s defensive dominance against the Pacers. Brogdon’s first shot of the night was a miss courtesy of Ball, but even as the game continued, Ball stayed locked in. This is something that he must begin doing more regularly. It’s too often that Ball shows his defensive ability for a few plays in a game, but doesn’t buy-in for the entire 48 minutes. Stan Van Gundy needs to get Ball to love playing defense for this Pelicans team to achieve its full potential.
Ball was also a bright off-ball defender against the Pacers. Nate Bjorkgren’s team led the NBA in points in the paint before their game against New Orleans, but Ball did his part to make Indiana as uncomfortable as possible around the basket.
Above, Ball is stationed as the low man next to Pacers center Goga Bitadze. Once Brogdon drives past Brandon Ingram, Ball comes over to alter the shot. His timing is perfect and forces Brogdon to switch how he’s going to finish at the last possible moment. This possession results in an airball, which is something that probably would not have happened in the Pelicans’ first encounter against the Pacers earlier this season.
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.