Welcome to the NBA Hangover. We jot down NBA stuff mostly from last night that we want to talk about. Check it out.
Brandon Ingram got a lot of buckets on Thursday night.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Gerald Herbert/AP.)
The Utah Jazz had their 10-game win streak snapped by a very game New Orleans Pelicans team. It took an extra five minutes to do it but make no mistake about it: Brandon Ingram was a huge reason why they won. And Brandon Ingram has been doing this all season.
He countered Donovan Mitchell point for point. The result was Ingram scoring a career-best 49 points to Mitchell’s 46 points (which matched his career high in scoring). Ingram has been very consistent as the go-to man for the Pelicans. And it probably wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Zion Williamson’s injury.
Some people will tell you that he made the leap this season. But some of us know that this isn’t the case. Because he was already doing this kind of production last season before he went out with a scary blood clot in his arm that ended his campaign early. There were signs that he was getting his flow around this time last year when he scored 36 points in a loss against Philly. But it was after the all-star break where it seemed like he turned the corner. In 6 games after the break, Ingram averaged 27.8 points and 7.5 boards while shooting .570 from the field AND .529 from three in nearly three attempts per game. And yes, LeBron James also had his season end early last year but he was playing in all those same 6 games Ingram was rolling in.
Of course, he improved even more being the #1 option for the Pelicans. He’s a much better shooter than his Laker tenure. With Alvin Gentry‘s offense, he has all the space in the world to work with and can seemingly drive to the hoop with ease. While he operates best with the ball in his hands, he’s also gotten better with his off-the-ball movement. His defense still isn’t the greatest but the potential is there. Ingram has followed his post-all-star break play with season averages of 25.8 points (good for 10th), 6.8 boards, and 4.3 assists. Also, his three-point shooting continues to make cash register sounds; he’s making .406 of his threes in 6.2 attempts per game.
He’s turning out to be the player the Lakers envisioned him… except it likely wasn’t going to happen in L.A. with LeBron’s overwhelming presence there. Even if he did have that excellent run before his season ended, there was a chance there would be rifts over his role in the offense. Ingram needed to get out of the blinding brighter lights of Los Angeles. And even then, he wouldn’t have gotten this chance if Zion stayed healthy.
Regardless, everyone now sees what Brandon Ingram can do. He’s going to cash out after this season. The question is… will it be in New Orleans?
Bullet Passes
Free throws, Rudy Gobert. It hurt to see him miss that first foul shot before the game went to OT with the Pelicans. Gobert is shooting under 61 percent on the line for the season.
Charles Barkley mentioned on Inside The NBA that he doesn’t want to see an NBA player shoot 30 shots (he pointedly mentioned Donovan Mitchell shooting 34 shots).
I think I’ve made a point about this and my stance has pretty much changed over the years: I’d rather have my best player shoot as many shots as he wants as long as it’s within the offense or he’s hot. The others will get their shots, anyway. I’d rather have Donovan shoot 34 times than a 10th man getting 19 shots or whatever. There’s a reason why Donovan is the go-to guy, right?
And it’s funny that Charles is pointing this out. It’s no secret that he doesn’t love analytics. What was he doing here? Pointing out numbers. What about the feel of the game? Again, Mitchell had it going and the flow of the game went about a certain way. He scored 46 points.
Shoot your shots.
We know we love to make fun of the teams that passed on Luka Doncic (namely Phoenix and Sacramento). But Deandre Ayton hasn’t been bad since he came back from his long suspension. He’s averaging 17.9 points and 12.1 boards in this calendar year of 2020 and the team is 4-4 in that span.
He still gets lost in defense a lot of the time but he has become a really good roll man. Plus he’s only played 11 games this season. We’ll see how he is as the season progresses and we’ll see how good he is by his third or/and fourth season.
Kemba Walker scored 40 points but not having Jaylen Brown didn’t help in Boston’s big loss against Milwaukee.
The positioning below the Lakers in the West playoff picture was untangled just a bit. The Clippers blew out the Magic while the Nuggets escaped against the Dubs. Denver and the Clippers are essentially separated by percentage points but they pretty much have the same record. Utah’s loss slides them down to 4th.
The Scoreboard
PHX 121 (17-24) @ NY 98 (11-31)
BOS 123 (27-13) @ MIL 128 (37-6)
UTA 132 (28-13) @ NO 138 (16-26) (OT)
DEN 134 (29-12) @ GS 131 (9-34)
ORL 95 (20-22) @ LAC 122 (29-13)
Watch This Play
It was a blowout win by the Suns in Madison Square Garden so Ricky Rubio and Deandre Ayton punctuated it with this play.
(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA On FIre.)
What a lob by Rubio and what a catch by Ayton.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
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