NEW ORLEANS — Learning how to execute late in the fourth quarter can be an arduous process for all young teams, but the ones that succeed most in those situations understand one rule: Keep it simple.
The New Orleans Pelicans did just that in a 125-118 win over the Indiana Pacers on Friday night by doing what fans have been begging to see from them when the game is on the line: Put Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram in an action and let them figure it out.
The Pelicans ran everything through their two best players during the waning moments of the fourth quarter and consistently produced good shots. That’s how it should look when one of the NBA’s most offensively gifted duos works together and commits to doing all the little things that lead to winning. Williamson finished with 34 points and 10 assists. Ingram had 26 points and seven assists. They scored or assisted on 25 of the team’s final 28 points.
“It’s what they’re capable of doing night in and night out. We saw it on full display tonight,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said.
But this win and the performances from Williamson and Ingram were so much bigger than showing improvement in the clutch. Friday’s game was a moment of truth for the Pelicans and their two most important players.
New Orleans returned home after looking lifeless in three straight double-digit losses on the road, and the team’s ever-growing list of injuries to major contributors left some concerned about where the season was headed.
The Pelicans were already without Dejounte Murray because of a fractured hand and Trey Murphy because of a strained hamstring. Then, hours before Friday’s game, the team announced that CJ McCollum would be sidelined two to three weeks with a right adductor strain and Herb Jones would be out two to four weeks with a right shoulder strain.
That’s four of the team’s best six players on the roster out for multiple weeks. And that’s not even mentioning some of the nagging injuries players like Jordan Hawkins, Yves Missi and Daniel Theis are playing through.
With those injuries hanging over the team like a dark cloud, another performance similar to the last three outings would all but confirm New Orleans was in a full-on spiral less than two weeks into the regular season. How could this team possibly escape the impending doom it was seemingly facing at one point Friday afternoon?
The answer is another simple one: Williamson and Ingram.
If the Pelicans have any hope of surviving the flood of injuries that have ravaged this roster early in the season, it’ll require Williamson and Ingram lifting the remaining pieces and carrying them as far as they can, just as they did in the fourth quarter on Friday night.
Good isn’t going to be good enough for these next few weeks. Williamson and Ingram must be consistently great to give this team a chance to compete in its current form. Failure to do so could lead to New Orleans falling into a hole that will be exceedingly difficult to recover from in a hyper-competitive Western Conference.
“They already carry a load offensively, they’re probably gonna have to carry a heavier load now,” Hawkins said on Friday. “They’re ready for it.”
Considering everything that’s led the Pelicans to this point, Williamson and Ingram finding themselves at this crossroads will be the toughest and most fascinating challenge this duo has faced since joining forces in 2019.
Last season, Williamson and Ingram each had the most successful year of their respective careers, helping the Pelicans win 49 regular-season games in a stacked Western Conference. However, it wasn’t because either of them was playing at such an amazingly high level.
Williamson and Ingram failed to make it to the All-Star Game or onto any All-NBA team by season’s end. Williamson had his lowest scoring average (22.9 points) since his rookie season and Ingram (20.8 points) averaged fewer points than he ever has in a Pelicans uniform.
For that team to succeed the way it did, it was important for the stars to willingly take a step back and allow the depth of the roster to shine. They were 20-10 in games when Ingram scored fewer than 20 points. They were 13-8 when Williamson failed to reach 20 points. Teams with legitimate stars don’t win that often when their stars aren’t dominating. Over the next few weeks, the duo must dominate. Williamson’s and Ingram’s greatness has to shine through so the others can fit into their proper roles.
But it’s not just about them putting up big numbers, either.
On Tuesday night, Williamson and Ingram combined to score 61 points on the road against the Warriors, and New Orleans still lost by 18. They know stagnant offense and too much reliance on one-on-one basketball will only lead to more struggles.
“When me and B.I. are on the court, I think we have so much (belief) that one of us can make something happen over two-to-four defenders that we become stagnant,” Williamson admitted.
For this version of the Pelicans to succeed, the two best players have to lead with their production along with their physicality and the urgency on a nightly basis. The force they played with, and not the points Williamson and Ingram accounted for, stood out the most on Friday. They attacked early and often instead of waiting for the defense to load up against them. They didn’t settle. They were active and consistently communicating on defense.
It was clear they wouldn’t let their team lose this night. Players of their caliber can have that much influence on a game when they’re fully locked in — even if their supporting cast includes relative unknowns such as Brandon Boston Jr., Jamal Cain and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
But can Williamson and Ingram maintain the energy and focus required to succeed with this group? If so, for how long? These tests may determine where the Pelicans are in the standings once the reinforcements heal and return to the lineup. And it may ultimately determine if this duo is as good as so many still believe they can be.
“It was a huge growth moment for them. A step in the right direction,” Green said. “They know the team is relying on their leadership right now.”
Williamson and Ingram being the two people who can save this Pelicans season is also ironic because so much of the frustration surrounding these two in New Orleans as the pillars of the franchise is how often they’ve been unavailable because of injuries. Now, while everyone else is dropping like flies, they’re the last two standing.
Even with all the success the Pelicans had in 2023-24, the season went down the drain in the end because Williamson suffered a hamstring injury that forced him to miss the playoffs, and Ingram was recovering from a knee injury. It all played a part in him having maybe the worst four-game stretch of his Pelicans career as the Oklahoma City Thunder swept New Orleans out of the first round of the playoffs.
The frustration from yet another opportunity squandered because of injuries led to the front office making some drastic moves this summer. They acquired Murray so he could be Williamson’s new co-star and the vocal leader of the team. After showing very little interest in signing Ingram to the extension he was looking for this summer, the Pelicans spent most of the offseason looking for potential trade partners interested in acquiring Ingram. After failing to find a deal that made sense, they chose to bring Ingram back, even as he plays out the final season of his current contract.
It’s reasonable to say the Pelicans made significant changes over the summer because they ultimately determined Williamson and Ingram couldn’t lead them to the promise land — at least not at the price that would’ve been required to keep them together long-term.
Now, the only way to save this season is by relying on the star duo who may have been broken up months ago if the front office had its way. If those two can keep tapping into whatever they discovered on Friday night, it’ll be intriguing to see if it affects how those two are viewed and how the front office potentially views the future – with or without them together.
“People always try to tell us that we can’t hoop together,” Williamson said of Ingram during his on-court, postgame interview. “Me and him just want to have fun and make it happen. That’s what basketball is all about.”
(Stephen Lew / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
