No portion of may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form. That was followed closely by Valanciunas’ consistency (48 percent), highlighted by 17 double-doubles entering Friday’s action.Copyright © 2019 Houston Texans. In Friday’s Twitter poll, Pelicans fans voted for the center’s three-point prowess as their favorite aspect of his start to 2021-22, with 51 percent of ballots. There has been so much to like about Jonas Valanciunas’ first month-plus with the Pelicans, particularly with him pulling off the rarity of ranking in the NBA’s top five in both rebounding average and three-point shooting percentage.
Ingram responded by establishing a career high in assists. It was no surprise after Ingram carried New Orleans with 29 points Wednesday that Dallas devoted a ton of attention to trying to stop him from scoring. The net total was a five-point deficit, a major improvement from Wednesday, but still not great.Īfter Dallas climbed over 50 percent on threes in the Smoothie King Center, the Mavericks shot just 10/34, which is 29 percent. The New Orleans defense sliced 22 points off what Dallas scored two nights earlier in the first quarter (41), but the offense went through an epic struggle. Over the past week, they’ve beaten Utah, the Clippers and Dallas in those teams’ arenas, with the latter two coming by a decisive margin. The Pelicans had better ball movement than the Mavericks, one factor behind the visitors pulling away in the second half.ģ-1: Pelicans road record since starting the season 1-9 in away games.
Friday ended a five-game losing skid at American Airlines Center.ģ0: New Orleans assists. The Pelicans most recently prevailed in Big D on March 18, 2019. He has times when he’s aggressive (scoring and seeking his shot), but if the defense is on him, he’s giving up (the ball).”ģ: Seasons since New Orleans notched a victory at Dallas. The beauty of it is he’s just trusting the guys on the floor, and they trust him. “Brandon is a special player,” Willie Green said of the 2020 All-Star. He didn’t have a great shooting night against a Dallas defense focused on stopping him, but he nearly notched a triple-double, running the New Orleans attack by dishing out a career-best 12 assists, while also grabbing eight rebounds. Ingram produced his best all-around game of this season and one of his finest since joining the Pelicans two summers ago.
On a subsequent possession, Ingram spun adeptly around Dallas forward Maxi Kleber to draw a foul, sinking a pair of free throws for another 16-point edge at 4:05.
We were able to get some easy baskets, which was great for us."īrandon Ingram sank a three-pointer from the right corner, giving New Orleans a 97-81 lead with 4:47 remaining. Defensively we turned it up even more in the third. “We missed shots we normally make in the first quarter. “It was the defense and the pace we played with offensively,” Pelicans spot starter Garrett Temple said of what caused the in-game turnaround. New Orleans outscored Dallas 63-43 in the second half, after trailing 19-14 through a quarter and 48-44 at halftime. The Pelicans began Friday’s game shooting just 2/20 from the field, as well as 2/14 in the paint, but kept battling and seized momentum with a 35-20 third-quarter edge. New Orleans shook off an ugly offensive start Friday and a one-sided home loss to Dallas two nights earlier, beating the same Mavericks on their home floor behind a second-half surge. Sometimes they also need to do the same within a game. NBA teams must be resilient over the course of the long 82-game regular season, bouncing back from bad nights and tough losses.