On April 25, Beijing time, the Sun came to the pelicans home, and finally the Pelicans defeated the Suns 103-118, and the Pelicans relied on full resilience to pull the score to a 2:2 draw. The two sides will play the Battle of King's Mountain at the home of the Suns on April 27.
Looking back at the game, the two teams were in equal shape at the beginning of the first quarter, but the Pelicans sat on home advantage and continued to score points under the leadership of Ingram, Ingram scored 11 points in the first quarter, helped the Pelicans lead the Suns 25-22 in the first quarter, and the two teams continued their offensive status in the first quarter at the beginning of the second quarter, the two sides attacked even more, Paul scored consecutive assists to help the Suns equalize the score, and at the end of the half, the Suns led the Pelicans by two points 51-49.
In the second half, the two sides fought again, the Pelicans made adjustments to strengthen the restrictions on the Suns' flanks, helping Ingram open up space, Ingram played three consecutive singles, the Pelicans played an offensive climax to turn the score at a 10-2 start, the Pelicans scored 35 points at the end of the third quarter, and the Suns attacked the dud with only 23 points. Coming to the end of the final quarter, the Suns were at the end of the crossbow, and Paul hoped to continue the strong performance of the last final quarter, and began to look for opportunities to shoot, but he did not hit, and then made a fatal mistake and was snatched by the Pelicans. The Pelicans still maintained offensive firepower in the final quarter to score 34 points to crush the Suns.
Core player data for both sides
sun:
Ayton 23 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block; Johnson had 13 points, five rebounds and three assists; Paul had 4 points, 3 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals.
pelican:
Ingram 30 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists; Valanciunas 26 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists; McCollum had 18 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.
From the data point of view, the state of the players on both sides is not in a level, the Pelicans rely on the excellent performance of Ingram and Valanciunas to almost suppress the Suns, the Suns also played a counter-attack climax through Paul's assists, but Paul only scored 4 points on the offensive end of this game, after Booker's injury, the Suns scored sharply, the first two games the Sun can remain competitive because Paul played well in the last quarter, making up for the shortcomings of the lack of scoring points, but once Paul attacked the dud, It is difficult to rely on Ayton alone to score, and it seems that the impact of Booker's injury on the Suns is not 10% of the media's speculation, Booker's injury directly affects the Suns' offensive system, but the problem itself was covered up in the first few games because of Paul's bravery.
The Pelicans are the absolute hero of this series, and in the face of Durant's sluggish form, Ingram has gradually surpassed its template, at least in the playoffs Durant's performance is beyond expectation.
Ingram's last 4 games
First game: 18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, game 2: 37 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal and 1 block
Game 3: 34 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block, game 4: 30 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists
When the first game of the series ended, Ingram was pushed to the forefront of public opinion, his performance was sorry for the tactics given by the team, but the young man who entered the playoffs for the first time made adjustments in the second game, and the Pelicans created a lot of misalignment opportunities for Ingram, and finally Ingram found a scoring rhythm and extended this state to the end of game four, and in the last three games, Ingram averaged 33.6 points per game.
As a player based on Durant as a model, Ingram has completely evolved in this round of playoffs, under ingram's leadership, the Pelicans are no longer water birds but eagles, and Ingram, known as Durant's high imitation, may not be weaker than the body. The youngster took on the team's heavy lifting after Zion's injury and CJ's arrival helped him get elevated, and regardless of how the Pelicans ended this year, Ingram deserves more respect from the team and the league.