After a team record of 36 wins and 46 losses in the regular season, the Pelicans, who ranked ninth in the West, sat at home, and the playoffs ushered in the challenge of the Tenth Place Spurs in the West.
In terms of pelicans, Ingram + Varan fire line return, this campaign is sitting on the home advantage of the Pelicans is also ready to defend the home to win the key battle.
On the spurs side, head coach Popovich lined up, and whether the Spurs can withstand the pressure on the road has undoubtedly become a major attraction of this game!
However, after four quarters of competition, with the excellent performance of CJ McCollum, the Pelicans, who played at home, easily suppressed the Spurs in the first three quarters and occupied the initiative on the court.
Despite the final minute, Kelden Johnson + Vassell sent out consecutive efforts to lead the Spurs to a 16-1 counterattack frenzy, successfully narrowing the point difference to single digits and preserving the suspense of the game.
But ingram + Varan + Herbert Jones felt hot, the Pelicans always maintained a double-digit lead, and the Spurs could not catch up with the points, so they had to lose.
The Pelicans, who finally withstood the pressure, also beat the Spurs 113-103 at home, refusing a big reversal at the same time, and officially eliminated the Spurs, retaining the hope of impacting the playoffs!
Playing at home in this game, the Pelicans can be described as all soldiers, playing a 5-man scoring double-double, multi-point blossoming team offensive, and winning a 10-point victory.
In the case of herbert Jones + Alvarado and other main players, each performing their duties, the play of the big three CJ McCollum + Ingram + Varan, who jointly cut 81 points, is particularly critical!
CJ McCollum exploded in the game, scoring three three-pointers on 12-of-23 shooting in the 38th minute of the game, plus an all-around performance of 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 block.
Among them, in the second quarter, he shot 7 shots and scored 19 points without false shots, which not only provided the Pelicans with strong firepower, but also helped the team quickly open the score gap!
In addition, as the ace of the team's front line, Ingram's play in this game is also indispensable.
Ingram shot nearly 60 percent of the time on 11-of-19 shooting, delivering 27 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
And his key play in the final quarter, the key play of scoring 10 points in the single quarter, is also almost single-handed, completely ending the Spurs' idea of trying to fight back!
Of course, the Pelicans were able to beat the Spurs in this game, and the performance of the team's interior line- Takatavaran also played a crucial role.
Varan was very efficient in this game, starting 34 minutes, and contributed 22 points + 14 rebounds + 3 assists + 1 steal + 2 blocks on 9-of-14 shooting.
Not only did it win on the offensive end, hanging the Spurs' inner line, but also on the defensive end, it interfered with the Spurs' offense many times, and successfully affected the trend of the game!
More importantly, after defeating the Spurs in this game and successfully advancing to the second round of the playoffs, the Pelicans, which are gaining momentum, will also compete with the Los Angeles Clippers for the last ticket to enter the playoffs.
Rationally speaking, judging from the current state of the Pelicans, it is indeed still unknown who will die in the battle with the Clippers, and the Clippers, who have been unable to retreat, will undoubtedly usher in a decisive battle!
On the spurs side, the team reversed the defeat in this game, and finally swallowed a 10-point defeat, officially out of the playoffs of the game performance, obviously still need to be examined.
After all, after Vassell played well, shooting 7 three-pointers and cutting a 23+2+3 outstanding performance, Murray + Kelden Johnson shot only 11 of 39 shots, and the sluggish performance of 10 three-pointers was indeed a bit unsatisfactory!
Obviously, for this young Spurs team, although the team has qualified to enter the playoffs through the playoffs in the case of being not optimistic for a while, with the team's official departure from the Pelicans, the Spurs' competition this season is also completely over!