Pelicans Ride Wings To Victory Over Clippers
The New Orleans Pelicans led from start to finish in beating the Los Angeles Clippers in a runaway, 131-110 victory.
New Orleans posted possibly its best performance of the season in perhaps the team's biggest game of the season.
Opening a critical four-game West Coast road swing, the Pelicans rode torrid shooting and solid defense all game long to beat the Clippers for the eighth time in their last nine meetings.
New Orleans opened the game on an 8-0 run and never looked back. Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy III combined to score 26 of the Pelicans' 37 first quarter points taking advantage of the Clippers' zone defense repeatedly. Ingram torched L.A. from the mid-range and as they collapsed on him, he and his teammates were able to move the ball to open shooters.
Murphy found the soft spots and buried four of the Pels' nine three-pointers in the period.
Trey scored a career-high 20 points in the first half and ended the night with 32 points on only 14 shot attempts. It didn't hurt that 10 of his 11 made baskets were from deep, setting a new-career for "Trigga."
His one bucket inside the arc, was a ridiculous alley-oop finish of a beautiful lob from Naji Marshall.
On this night, Murphy was just one of the Pelicans who had it going from distance. Four players made at least three triples, including Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Josh Richardson. New Orleans tied its franchise record with 21 threes, and converted an incredible 61.8 percent of its attempts.
The Pelicans also tied franchise-bests for three-pointers made in the first quarter (9) and first half (14).
Ingram had his second consecutive game with at least 30 points and 10 assists, finishing with 32 points and a career-high 13 assists with only one turnover.
His willingness to pass the basketball spread throughout the roster. The Pels collected another season-high with 36 assists on their 51 buckets.
Jonas Valanciunas continued his streak of double-doubles as well. JV had 17 points and 13 rebounds to provide the interior balance as the rest of the team dominated from outside.
Herb Jones spearheaded the defensive effort once again, holding Kawhi Leonard to 1-for-8 shooting in the first career matchup between the Pelicans' young defensive star and the two-time NBA Finals MVP.
While the Clippers shot very well from the field, the Pelicans never allowed L.A. to string together easy baskets
Coincidentally, the Pels hadn't beaten a team with a winning record on the road since defeating L.A. back on Oct. 30 of last year. New Orleans ended a 146-day drought by raining three-pointers all over Southern California.
New Orleans remained in ninth place in the West after its win, but continued to put distance between itself and 12th place Utah, as the Jazz lost their third straight game.
The Pelicans now travel to face the Trail Blazers, already in possession of a victory in Portland and leading the season series 2-1.
