After Sunday’s win over the Spurs, Brandon Ingram noted that he didn’t think he’d ever started 2-1 in the league as part of the process of building a winning culture.
It’s a hard-to-believe but true fact as twice Ingram started winless in his first three games and twice won just once. But following a strong defensive performance in their home-opening win against the Spurs, the Pelicans have a winning mark through three games and plenty of optimism early in the year.
“I told these guys afterward,” Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy said. “‘It sounds crazy, but as a coach, these are my favorite kinds of wins.’ Not that I want to shoot like that every night but to shoot 38% (from the field) and 20% from three and be able to get a win against a good team, to me, is a great way to win.
“Every team in this league can beat any team on their best night. The good teams have to be able to win on less than their best nights and we did it by the things we’ve been talking about since day one.”
For the second time this season, it was Ingram that took the ball down the stretch for the Pelicans. And for the second time this season, he was the one making the right calls as the Pelicans held off the Spurs for the win.
“I thought he did a really good job,” Van Gundy said of Ingram. “Obviously, (he) took us from behind to the lead. We were riding him on every play and then I probably went too far with it. He had two turnovers down the stretch. I think he was tired at the end. I had probably given him too much there but, obviously, he both made plays and made shots that got us the lead.
“He’s that guy for us,” Lonzo Ball added. “We all know that. We look to him, especially in crunch time situations, to bring the win home for us and that’s what he’s done twice now. We have the utmost confidence in him and we love playing with him.”
Despite Ingram’s uptick in production for a second year in a row and his Player of the Week honors, the Pelicans defense has been arguably the biggest positive takeaway of the first three games.
Twice the Pelicans have held opponents under 100 points this season, a figure that is already half as many as last season. Through the opening week, the team is fifth in defensive rating at 101.3 and second in opponents points per game at 101.7. Last season through the same point, the Pelicans ranked 27th in defensive rating and 29th in opponent’s points per game.
After a blip defensively against the Heat, the Pelicans ironed at the kinks in the film room and put forth arguably their best defensive effort of the season.
“We watched the tape,” Ball said. “We talked about it. We all decided the talk wasn’t where it needed to be last game and it was there tonight. I think it showed and, ultimately, it led to a win tonight.”
After shootaround on Sunday, Ball made many of the same points, talking about the breakdowns in pick-and-roll coverage and failures to communicate. All of it is a work in progress for a team that ranked among the worst defensively last season but has made that end of the court a priority under Van Gundy.
Ball was a major factor in that strong defensive display against the Spurs, finishing with five steals with three of those coming in the third quarter alone.
“He’s got great anticipation,” Van Gundy said. “He’s long. He’s just got really good instincts for the ball and I thought he did a really good job there. I was happy with him. I thought he played a good game. I thought he played a really, really good game.”
Steven Adams, predictably, has been a major factor in the team’s defense as well, sporting a team-low defensive rating of 89.7 through the opening three games. Ingram, Ball and Josh Hart all have sub-100 defensive ratings in the small sample size. Comparatively, though, no Pelican finish with a defensive rating below 106 last season.
For now, it’s impossible to determine if this is a sign of changing tides or the exception to what will be a different rule throughout the season. But through three games, it’s as positive a start as Ingram and the Pelicans could have hoped for.