Video: Pelicans handle Cavs, 116-104

For the ninth consecutive time, the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Cleveland Cavaliers at home. Thanks to the 116-104 win on Friday night coupled with Memphis Grizzlies’ loss to the Sacramento Kings, New Orleans sits just two games back of Memphis in the race for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Brandon Ingram scored a team-high 29 points for the Pelicans, who made 54.5 percent of their shots on the night. He led three players with at least 20 points. Zion Williamson scored 24, extending his streak of games with 20 points or more to 10, the longest streak for any 19 year old in NBA history.

Jrue Holiday added 22 points and led a Pelicans defensive attack that helped New Orleans seize control of the game from the outset.

The Pelicans scored 43 points in the first quarter. New Orleans put 23 points on the board in the first six minutes of the period, with Lonzo Ball getting the offense moving early.

He found Derrick Favors on the Pels’ first possession for a quick jumper. After a rebound he hit Williamson on the move for two more. Ball had assists on five of the Pelicans’ first six field goals. As a team, New Orleans racked up a franchise-record 15 dimes on their 18 baskets over the first 12 minutes. The Pelicans had 36 assists for the game.

“It started with our point guard,” said Ingram after the game. “He pushed the pace, he found open guys early on…he continued to push the pace and find open guys and that jump started everything that we did today.”

“He did exactly what we would like to see him do as a point guard,” Alvin Gentry said of Lonzo’s performance. “I thought he controlled the game, the pace of the game, he dictated the whole thing.”

Ball finished the night with 12 assists and only two turnovers. Favors accounted for the entire Pelicans rebounding advantage (49-34), as he hauled in a game-high 15 boards. E’Twaun Moore and Nicolo Melli scored10 points apiece off the bench. For Melli, it was his sixth double figure scoring effort in his last 10 games.

The pace allowed the Pelicans to attack the paint relentlessly. New Orleans scored 72 points down low against a Cavaliers front line that includes Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, and Larry Nance Jr.

Williamson was too much inside. If he got the seal deep, his teammates found him and he scored easily. In transition, he’s unstoppable. His points came so easily and quickly. He continues to quickly figure out the angles of attack to maximize his quickness and size around the basket. At one point, Love looked at his bench after being demolished by Zion as if to say “What do you want me to do?”
He and Ingram combined for 53 points on 22 of 35 shooting (62.8%).

It was an important bounce back performance for the Pels after their loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night and those same Lakers coming to town on Sunday.

Coming in to the night with only 24 games remaining in the season, any loss, particularly one to a sub-.500 team at home, could prove disastrous to the team’s postseason push.

“We have to have the same approach for every single game,” Ingram said. “Every time that we come in we’ve got to play above the competition on the offensive and defensive end, continue to get better, and worry about oursleves.”

New Orleans has to win 18 of those 24 to reach 41 wins on the season, a total that should get the Pelicans into the playoffs for just the fourth time in the last decade.

Ingram, who has grown into a leader this season, knows exactly what it will take for that to happen.

“Having a sense of urgency, and making sure that we’re making every possession count,” he stated. “At the end of the game, those things really matter and our execution has definitely got to get better in that fourth quarter, and we gotta not turn the basketball over.”

HIs coach echoed those thoughts. “We know what’s on the line,” said Gentry. “We just have to go out and play. We have to make sure that we’re executing. (Tonight) our defense dictacted our offense, and when that happens I think you’re in good shape.”

We’ll see how good shape the Pelicans are in Sunday night. After dropping all three previous matchups to the Lakers this season, they’re catching LA on the second game of a back to back (against Memphis).

If New Orleans hopes to face Los Angeles at least four more times in late April, a win this weekend would be a very encouraging sign indeed.