Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson have been stars in their respective roles this season for the Pelicans. After three seasons with mixed results in Los Angeles, Brandon Ingram exploded to start the 2019-20 season in New Orleans, picking up the slack left by Williamson’s injury that sidelined him until January.
Williamson, himself, wasted little time upon his own debut, bursting onto the scene like few rookies before him have. Together, though, the duo didn’t mesh as perfectly on the court as they did on paper. Integration on the fly proved a hill the team found hard to climb.
Monday, though, was a glimpse of what the future could hold for the Pelicans when everything does fall into place. Williamson and Ingram were nearly perfect in the fourth quarter, going a combined 7-of-10 from the field in the quarter, scoring 19 of the team’s 30 points and coming up with basket after basket down the stretch as the Pelicans fended off the Grizzlies for a 109-99 win.
“I think it’s great,” Gentry said of having his two stars close the game together. “Obviously, we didn’t mince words at all. We knew that this was a game that we had to win to even stay afloat at all. I thought our guys did a really good job. When you have two really young players like that that stepped up for you…I think if you look at it, we have a good young nucleus of players.
“We’re trying to find ourselves. Obviously, we’ve down here for almost a month now so, hopefully, things are starting to come together for us.”
This season, Ingram and Williamson have been successful but have shown some chinks in the armor. Williamson has a double-digit net rating with each of the other four starters for the Pelicans along with Frank Jackson. Ingram and Williamson, though, come in at the bottom of that list with a net rating of 10.0 in 373 minutes.
But on Monday, Ingram and Williamson scored or assisted on all but one basket in the fourth quarter, a JJ Redick three-pointer with 7:33 left to put the Pelicans up 91-83. Those three points along with a Jrue Holiday freebie late in the game were the only four points Ingram and Williamson did not directly have a hand in.
“I think it was just about being comfortable,” Holiday said of the Williamson closing the game. “For one, not just having Zion out there and acclimating him back, but him being in at the end of the game I think is big. I feel like it takes a lot of pressure off people. It takes a lot off (Ingram). He can go 1-on-1 now because we have so many threats on the floor. And the same with Zion. So many different shooters out there, so many different threats, it kind of makes it easier on us.
“I think when he’s out there, he makes the game easier. Like I was saying earlier, he’s a threat just by himself. Five guys have to attract to him.”
After two games in which he played only at the start of quarters, Williamson’s “burst limits” expanded on Monday. The rookie played 10 fourth-quarter minutes with a two-minute break in the middle of the period. In 25 minutes, Williamson finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists, a nearly identical line to Ingram’s 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes.
“It felt great to do that,” Williamson said of closing the game. “My competitive spirit was turned on. I was just happy the training staff and my team trusted me to be able to close the game out.”
“I thought it was a combination of everything,” Gentry added on his decision to play Williamson to close the fourth. “The medical guys thought that he was able to go back in and play and that’s why he was able to do it. I thought he played really good down the stretch. As I said, I think he had some plays he’s normally going to finish and he will finish that he just didn’t finish them tonight.”
Together, Williamson and Ingram helped the Pelicans overcome fourth-quarter woes that have plagued them all season. The Pelicans still rank 29th in the league in net rating in the clutch, defined as games within five points in the final five minutes.
Ingram and Williamson, though, showed that, when things go right, the Pelicans can be as good as any team league in the final minutes.
“Unfortunately this season, we let some leads dwindle in the fourth quarter and lost some games we should have won,” Josh Hart said. “So, right now we’ve got five games left now and we know we have to get it now. If we don’t get it now, we’re not going to be playing August 18. It was big for us in terms of motivation and morale to get this win.”