The NBA regular season continues, with the Pelicans playing the Suns at home and the Suns leading 2-1 before the game, a game that is important for both sides, with a fundamental difference between 3-1 and 2-2. Ingram, who did not want to lose, broke out in the first quarter, scoring 11 points in a single quarter, and under his leadership, the Pelicans maintained a weak lead, and the Suns trailed by 3 points at the end of the first quarter; in the second quarter, McCollum continued to widen the point difference, and the Suns did not want to show weakness to play a wave of 20-10 counterattacks, and at the end of the first half, the Suns rebounded by 2 points. In the third quarter, Ingram played a no-solution performance again, a single quarter blast of 16 points, the Pelicans all the way to the advantage of holding 10 points to attack the fourth quarter, although the Suns chased back 5 points, but Valanciunas suddenly erupted, scored 10 consecutive points, the point difference returned to the two leading, 2 minutes before the final game, the Suns trailed behind 18 points behind in the case of withdrawing the main force, the Pelicans home cheered, the two sides after four quarters of competition, in the end, the Pelicans 118-103 light sun, the big score to 2-2 draw.
In the first few games, Paul performed very well, breaking personal records in succession, and in this game he performed sluggishly, although he got 11 assists, but on the offensive end, only 8 shots were 2, three-point shots were 3 of 0, scoring 4 points, it is worth mentioning that these 4 points were obtained in the first 6 minutes of the game, and in the remaining 42 minutes he did not score a point, and worse, the score, shooting percentage and three-point shooting and free throw numbers have all set a new career low. It is not too much to describe it in 4 words. In McCollum's words, he didn't want to hear about Paul's record-breaking after the game. Lacking Booker's Suns, the apparent lack of a steady point for scoring, although Ayton played a super level performance and scored 23 points, it was not enough to score 20+ points for one person against the multi-point flowering Pelicans.
Of course, the Pelicans could equalize, and the first thing to thank is Ingram, who exploded again, scoring 30 points, and he stepped up when the Suns were ready to pull off the points gap. Not only that, in the first three playoff games, he averaged 33 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists per game, shooting 56% from the field, and has become the core of the team. In addition, Valanciunas also became a surprise soldier, especially in the fourth quarter, 10 consecutive points to extinguish the Suns' will to fight back, he had a large double-double with 26 points and 15 rebounds, in addition, McCollum's defense against Paul was also very good, and he also had 18 points and 9 rebounds. If the Suns are unstable in the absence of Booker, then the Pelicans will have the possibility of staging "Black Eight". After the big score was tied 2-2, the morale of the Pelicans team had peaked, and more importantly, the Pelicans manager seemed to have found a way to limit Paul.