The final play is a defensive one that Brandon Ingram himself pointed out as a miscue after the game. Much of the attention regarding Ingram at the end of the game was on his final shot that didn’t fall, but in the postgame presser, he focused on the defensive side of the ball as the biggest areas of improvement.
“It looked like a good shot,” Ingram said of his missed buzzer-beater in his post-game presser. “It’s a shot I’ve been working on. But like I said, the offense is not what I’m worried about. The last three plays on the defensive play were the foul on me, me digging in on the help side was me and being the low man on the defensive side was me. So, that’s some things that I can fix and the outcome of that game would have been a little different and wouldn’t have come down to that three.”
The last of those three examples he gave is pictured above. The Jazz run a high ball screen with Conley and Gobert that is a tough cover for any team. Conley rejects the screen, though, and is side-by-side with Ball going to the rim. The Pelicans’ drop coverage allows Favors the ability to get back and challenge the shot as both he and Ball force a difficult attempt from Conley.
Ingram finds himself in a tough situation on the weak side. He is the low man but he also has Joe Ingles, a 40.6% career three-point shooter, to be mindful of as well as Gobert, one of the best big men in the league, diving to the rim. His split second of hesitation on the play means he can’t fully get in front of Gobert which allows him to tip the ball back out for an offensive rebound to recycle the possession.
Eventually, Gobert would be fouled on the ensuing possession and would hit two free throws to eventually win the game. It’s a fine margin for Ingram but as a player proven to be a perfectionist – not a bad trait to have as a professional athlete – it was a play that could have changed the game in the end.
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