The NBA playoffs first round of contention continues, with the West ushering in a battle of focus, with the league-number one Suns heading on the road to challenge the Pelicans.
Although the Pelicans won the eighth place in the playoffs through successive upsets in the playoffs, the team had a good strength under the leadership of Ingram and CJ, and in G2, it completed the upset and pulled the score to a 1-1 draw.
Although the Suns are the first in the league, but the core of the team Booker suffered from injuries, this game is certainly unable to play, only by Ayton and Paul to lead the team to the away game G3, this game is crucial for both teams.
As soon as the game began, the Pelicans continued the team's absolute height advantage during this set of games, and the interior Hayes easily scored 2 points.
But what caught the Pelicans off guard was that Ayton, who had been completely crushed in the first two games, entered the form early in this game, handed over a tough performance on the offensive end, helped the team to bite the score, and the Pelicans only took a one-point lead in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Hayes was whistled for a second-degree malicious foul, directly expelled from the game as a turning point in the game, the Suns took advantage of the chaos to attack the inside line, Ayton continued the fiery performance, shooting 10 of 14 in the half, bombing 21 points and 7 rebounds, helping the Suns enter the halftime with an 11-point lead into the halftime.
The Pelicans gradually regained form, and although Ayton continued to be in shape at the beginning of the season, the Pelicans continued to eat into the point difference under the leadership of CJ and Ingram.
With 3 minutes left in the third quarter, the Pelicans successfully completed the comeback, but McGee's last 2-point shot allowed the Suns to barely take a 2-point lead into the final quarter.
In the final quarter, Paul took over the game, shooting 7-of-10 in a single quarter, bombing down 19 points, plus two assists, directly creating a 23-point score for the team, and finally helping the Suns narrowly beat the Pelicans 114-111, rewriting the big score to 2-1, and the team regained the lead.
Throughout the game, the Suns in the absence of Booker, players in various positions have played their abilities to the extreme.
Among them, the two cores of Ayton and Paul completed self-proof, breaking the previous doubts about the two, of which Ayton dominated the first half of the game, which is the key to the Suns' ability to establish an advantage on the road.
In the whole game, Ayton played 35 minutes, 13 of 20 shots, bombed down 28 points, 17 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals and 1 block data, and his personal plus-minus was as high as +18, which made him the first player since Xiaosi in 2007 to hand over at least 25+15 in the playoffs.
Paul also proved with his actions that when there is no Booker, he can still lead the team to victory.
Throughout the game, Paul controlled the situation in the first three quarters, constantly assisted teammates, completed a personal harvest in the final quarter, shot 10 of 18 in the whole game, and handed over 28 points, 4 rebounds, 14 assists and 1 steal, which made Paul the first player since the 1977-78 season to deliver at least 28 assists in two consecutive games without a single mistake.
In addition, Bridges was stable and efficient, with 17 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, and McGee and Crowder also scored 15 and 10 points respectively.
On the other hand, the Pelicans, Ingram and CJ both handed over remarkable performances, the former shot 11 of 19, 34 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists can be described as an effort, CJ also has 30 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists.
In addition, Jones had 12 points and 3 rebounds, Graham also had 12 points and 5 rebounds, and a group of role players also performed their duties, which allowed the team to drag the suspense of the game to the last minute.
The reason for the team's loss is simple, Hayes was sent out early in the second quarter, and Varan's poor form led to the Pelicans' huge loss of quality on the inside line, giving the Suns a large number of opportunities to shoot, the second point is the outside three-point error, only 11 of 32 shots in the whole game, missing a large number of empty three-pointers.
Although the Pelicans regretted losing home advantage, from the perspective of the game process, the Pelicans are no longer the stereotypical weak brigade, and they have every chance to complete the following gram.
Their confidence comes from two aspects, the first point is the huge height advantage, if Hayes is not sent off in this game, the Suns are still fierce, and Varan can not always be depressed, even in this case, the Pelicans won 10 rebounds in this game.
The second point is the core hardness of Ingram and CJ, even if the game is lost, Ingram has shown an inexplicable offensive ability in the game, has a "small KD" flavor, the offensive end often ignores defense, and so far in the playoffs, there has never been a downturn, and the Suns without Booker should be careful.