On February 26, Beijing time, the Sun sat at home to meet the challenge of the Pelicans, the gap in strength between the two sides was huge, the Suns were the first in the league, the Pelicans ranked 12th in the West, and the key to the Pelicans' victory was Chris Paul's absence, and finally won the Suns 117-102.
In the first quarter of the game, the two sides played back and forth, although it was an away game, because the Pelicans did not have any players selected as An All-Star, more physically, new signing Mikelum also gradually adapted to the Pelicans' system, the degree of confrontation between the two sides on the court is also very fierce, the referee's whistle in the first quarter of the game has basically not been broken, despite this, the Pelicans still have a nine-point lead. The Suns began a counter-attack in the second quarter, at one point achieving a counter-attack, Ingram and McCollum firing with two guns, feeling good, and taking a slight lead at 53-50 at halftime.
After entering the second half, Booker completely entered the personal attack mode, the Pelicans were fully explosive, especially the interior line was more frequent scoring, Valanciunas was dominating the basket, constantly grabbing rebounds in the front court, the Pelicans beat the Suns by 11 points in this quarter, the Suns set off a crazy counterattack in the last quarter, but unfortunately could not stop the Pelicans' effective score, and finally had to swallow a defeat. The game is described as a big upset, the gap between the two teams in the ranking is too large, although the lack of Paul, but the loss to the Pelicans is estimated to be an unexpected result.
Originally this was Booker's proof battle, the Suns can achieve the current results, the 38-year-old old Paul has to take half the credit, whether the Suns can maintain the advantage of the record in paul's absence, but the shoulders on the shoulders of Buke and Ayton have become very heavy. Ingram finally regained his familiar offensive state after the trade, and the game was efficient to play with 28 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, Mikelum contributed 32 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, and Valanx Chanus dominated the basket to win the large double-double data of 18+17, and the Pelicans ushered in their first victory after the All-Star Game.
Booker and Ayton scored 50 points and unfortunately lost, which was extremely important for the Pelicans, and the Suns could also find more problems with the team through this game.