Pelicans, Spurs a study in resilience
NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans firstyear coach Willie Green could have been forgiven for wondering what he had gotten himself into early this season.
Star forward Zion Williamson was injured with no clear timeline for recovery, and the Pelicans started 1-12.
Rather than foreshadowing a long year at the bottom of the Western Conference, those setbacks set the stage for New Orleans to exemplify the benefits of patience and perseverance.
Williamson still hasn’t played all season, yet the Pelicans have won more games than they’ve lost since last Thanksgiving. They finished ninth in the Western Conference and will host the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night in the first postseason game played in New Orleans since 2018.
“We definitely have resiliency,” Green said. “It’s a continuation of trying to build our program, starting with the beginning of this season and how difficult it was to be 1-12, and be at a point where we have this opportunity in front of us.”
While Gregg Popovich is in his 26th season as Spurs coach, is the NBA’s career leader in coaching victories and has five NBA championships to his name, his road to the 2022 postseason hasn’t been much different from Green’s.
The Spurs won just four of their first 17 games and were 16 games below .500 after a loss at Charlotte on March 5. Since then, they’ve gone 10-8 to sneak into the last Western Conference playin spot as the 10th seed.
“We’re starting to get better and better,” said Spurs wing player Devin Vassell, now in his second NBA season. “We’re growing as a team. We’ve got a lot of young players, but we’re all developing right now.”
Spurs guard Dejounte Murray has made major strides, becoming a firsttime All-Star and averaging 21.1 points, 9.2 assists and 8.3 rebounds this season.
Brandon Ingram has been New Orleans’ most productive offensive player, averaging 22.7 points, but he has gotten some help since the Pelicans acquired guard CJ McCollum in a multiplayer deal with Portland shortly before the NBA trade deadline in February.
McCollum, averaging 24 points since the trade, wasn’t around for New Orleans’ early season stumbles, but was well aware of them.
“It shows you how they stuck together, how they continued to fight through adversity, how much growth the team has had,” McCollum said. “I’m happy I could help get us into this position where we have a chance to get some postseason experience.”
To make it into the first round of the NBA playoffs, the winner in New Orleans must win again on Friday night, on the road, against the loser of Tuesday night’s play-in game between No. 7 seed Minnesota and the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers.
Productive lineup
Some recent lineup changes have yielded compelling results for New Orleans.
The 6-foot-11 Jaxson Hayes, drafted eighth overall in 2019, was inserted into the starting lineup at power forward, and McCollum took over at point guard following his trade. When those two have started alongside center Jonas Valanciunas, Ingram and defensiveminded rookie Herb Jones, the Pelicans are 7-3.
That is the likely lineup against San Antonio. Ingram, who missed the last three regular-season games with a sore hamstring, practiced Tuesday and declared himself ready.