The Pelicans took an important victory from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta in order to settle in the play-in. The New Orleans managed to prevail by 112-117, and took another small step in their fight to sneak into the postseason, or at least in the previous phase of it. In fact, Green’s cadre is currently in ninth place, so they would have home court advantage in the first round of the play-in once morest the Lakers if everything ended like this.
Despite still not being able to count on Brandon Ingram, NOLA found enough contribution not to miss their top scorer. Jonas Valanciunas, with 26 points and 12 rebounds, led the team in both sections, while CJ McCollum followed closely with 25 points. However, other men of less renown also had a vital contribution, as was the case of Willy Hernangómez, who finished with 17 points, or Jose Alvarado, who reached 15 and was even in charge of scoring the basket that left the match practically sentenced at the last minute.
The Pelicans also showed an enormous capacity for resistance, because, despite seeing how the Hawks traced a difference of 19 points, they did not fall apart and managed to regain the lead to win the match. The visitors started at an excellent level, causing numerous losses to Atlanta and punishing them frequently, but as the minutes passed they began to grow in the match. Led by Danilo Gallinari, author of 27 points, and Trae Young, who scored 21 and distributed 10 assists (although he was 5/14 in shooting and lost 7 balls), McMillan’s team came to tie the duel with 2 minutes remaining following spending practically the entire game behind, but his lack of resolution in the final stages made everything swim to die on the shore.
“They had their moment and took advantage of it to score many easy baskets in transition” commented the local coach. “We know that we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball, and I also think that today we didn’t know how to react. Our second unit allowed us to grow and get back into the game, but we have to know how to go down into the mud when he plays and play well from the beginning ».
(Cover photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)
