New Orleans nearly picked up one of their bigger wins of the season on Wednesday at home against the surging Blazers. Going toe-to-toe with Damian Lillard in MVP form, the Pelicans had a chance to either send the game to overtime or win on their final possession.
However, a broken play led to a long 3-point attempt from Lonzo Ball and despite Ball tracking down his own rebound, Brandon Ingram’s shot to tie the game at the buzzer missed as well, serving as a frustrating ending to a superb game for the Pelicans.
The Pelicans’ final possession came under near immediate criticism on social media due both to who didn’t touch the ball in the final possession – Zion Williamson – and who took the final shot – Ball – and the lack of execution overall.
“It was a broken play,” Ball said after the game. “(Ingram) swung it to me. I had some space so I shot it. I don’t shoot shots to miss them and I thought it was going in, so I live with the results.
“It was supposed to be a pick and roll with (Ingram) and (Williamson). They kind of blew it up and kind of threw us off a little bit. Like I said, I had no problem with the shot I took. I thought it was going in. We got the rebound, I got it back to (Ingram) and we ended up taking a tough one. It’s just a tough loss.”
As Ball noted, the final play was a broken one that saw the initial pick-and-roll action blown up. Robert Covington switching onto Ingram led to Ingram being unable to get into the lane. After having the ball kicked out to him, Ball shoots a long-distance, off-balance 3-pointer that misses long.
The rebound is tipped out to mid-court by Josh Hart and Ball runs onto it before kicking to Ingram in the corner. His pull-up mid-range jumper misses long as well as time expires.
Wednesday was one of the few times the Pelicans have been in a clutch situation, which NBA’s Stats describes as a game within five points in the final five minutes. This season, New Orleans has played in 43 clutch minutes, the ninth-fewest in the league. In those minutes, the team has a net rating of -7.8.
The Blazers are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Despite only playing 57 clutch minutes, the Blazers, behind Lillard’s incredible shot-making that was on display Wednesday, rank fifth in the league in net rating at +21.8.
As a result, Wednesday served as a lesson learned the hard way in how far the Pelicans still have to go as a young team.
“Just do what it takes to win,” Ball said of what the team has to improve upon in clutch situations. “We played against a good team tonight that’s been hot as of late. They got one of the best players in the league and they made more plays down the stretch than we did.”
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