A victory in Las Vegas and the Pelicans could offer themselves a final against Indiana and an opportunity for a title in the new “NBA Cup”. Finally, this December 7, in the semi-final, they exploded against the Lakers with a huge loss of 44 points!
More than three weeks later, Willie Green and his players returned to the Californians for this last day of 2023. Needless to say, this defeat had not been forgotten in the locker room.
“Given the way we lost this match, we wanted to redeem ourselves”confides the New Orleans coach for ESPN. “We talked about it over the last two days. We rewatched the images of this match, as hard as it was. »
By scoring 42 points in the first quarter, against a tired team, the Pelicans hit hard from the start of the match. They then maintained their lead to win without trembling by twenty points.
“They dominated the debates in the first confrontation”remembers Zion Williamson, spared from criticism in the wake of this elimination, for Nola. “We wanted to do the same, to dominate them. We were good at that. »
This revenge allows, in a way, to come full circle for the Pelicans. Because since this slap in the face at the beginning of December, they have been doing quite well with 7 victories in 10 matches.
“It was a blessing in disguise”believes Zion Williamson. “It was annoying. We went to Vegas expecting a very different result. I find that it united us collectively. Everyone communicates. We play well. We still have a few things to sort out but that's the case for all the other teams. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Brandon Ingram | 29 | 33.9 | 49.9 | 33.3 | 82.8 | 0.7 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 23.2 |
| Zion Williamson | 26 | 30.8 | 58.0 | 33.3 | 64.5 | 2.0 | 4.3 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 22.3 |
| Cj Mccollum | 19 | 33.4 | 46.2 | 41.8 | 78.0 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 4.8 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 19.7 |
| Trey Murphy III | 12 | 27.0 | 47.2 | 42.3 | 84.8 | 0.3 | 3.7 | 4.0 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 14.8 |
| Jonas Valanciunas | 32 | 27.7 | 56.8 | 35.5 | 78.9 | 2.4 | 7.3 | 9.7 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 3.3 | 14.5 |
| Jordan Hawkins | 27 | 23.9 | 38.2 | 36.2 | 87.0 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 10.7 |
| Herb Jones | 29 | 29.6 | 46.5 | 30.9 | 86.3 | 1.2 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 3.1 | 10.4 |
| Matt Ryan | 13 | 22.9 | 45.8 | 47.1 | 92.9 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 9.3 |
| Naji Marshall | 23 | 19.3 | 45.7 | 41.3 | 78.7 | 1.1 | 2.9 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 8.2 |
| Jose Alvarado | 18 | 16.0 | 43.0 | 38.9 | 59.1 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 6.7 |
| Dyson Daniels | 32 | 22.9 | 40.7 | 26.3 | 66.7 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 6.0 |
| Jeremiah Robinson earl | 13 | 11.8 | 54.8 | 43.8 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 4.5 |
| Larry Nance, Jr. | 15 | 15.7 | 52.1 | 30.8 | 50.0 | 1.3 | 3.1 | 4.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 3.9 |
| Kira Lewis, Jr. | 13 | 10.1 | 31.9 | 11.8 | 88.9 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 3.1 |
| Dereon Seabron | 5 | 10.5 | 30.8 | 50.0 | 83.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| Cody Zeller | 23 | 9.6 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 57.7 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.8 |
| Ej Liddell | 3 | 2.9 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 |
| Kaiser Gates | 1 | 7.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
