The New Orleans Pelicans are still in the running for a spot in the NBA playoffs. On Wednesday, they won against the San Antonio Spurs (113-103), during the play-in match, which pitted the 9th (New Orleans) and 10th (San Antonio) in the Western Conference.
Ingram revives New Orleans late in the game
To qualify for the play-offs, the Pelicans will have to beat the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, who stumbled Thursday against Minnesota. The winner will then find the Phoenix Suns, the best team of the regular season.
New Orleans easily took over San Antonio. The Pelicans were 11 points ahead at the break (61-50), then they widened the gap to have up to 21 points more (85-64, 21st) than the Texans. San Antonio, however, found the strength to come back to 97-91 five minutes from the buzzer. But their opponent immediately moved forward, notably with two decisive shots from Brandon Ingram, and sped towards qualification.
32 points pour McCollum
CJ McCollum, who arrived in Louisiana last February (from Portland), was the great architect of New Orleans’ victory. He scored 32 points (12/23 from shooting, 3/5 from three points), including 27 in the first period alone. Ingram has scored 27 (11/19, 0/2 at three points). Finally Jonas Valanciunas scored 22 points. On the San Antonio side, Devin Vassell was the most prominent (23 pts).
Spurs are now on vacation. If they did not play the leading roles this season, however, they had the merit of fighting to grab the play-in, notably dismissing the Los Angeles Lakers and their trio LeBron James – Antonio Davis – Russell Westbrook. And, as has been the case for several years, the question of the future of Gregg Popovich (73), the legendary Texan coach, will once again arise.