New Orleans Pelicans star forward Brandon Ingram has recently become the center of attention for the NBA world. Despite the absence of the team’s lead scorer Zion Williamson, BI managed to put up a strong offensive display against the Sacramento Kings and secured a rather comfortable 105-98 win. Through this victory, Ingram has ensured that his team will now head to the playoffs.
In order to talk about what occurred during the game, Ingram recently joined the ‘NBA on TNT’ crew for a discussion. When asked about the team’s mindset going into the game, host Ernie Johnson Jr revealed that he found out that CJ McCollum had sent a message to everyone on the roster prior to the Kings clash. BI revealed that he did not allow any distractions to cloud his judgment before the game. The same involved not responding to messages on the phone as well, even if it came from his own teammates.
“I ain’t looked at my phone the last 3-4 days,” said Ingram, as Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley led out a laugh in the background. “I was just locked in to winning the basketball game, thinking about the details of the basketball game. And, you know, just being aggressive”.
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CJ McCollum had given one of his most disappointing performances during the Kings-Pelicans clash. For someone who had been averaging 20 points during the course of the regular season, the player could only manage to drop 7 points during his 36 minutes on the court. Fortunately for him and the rest of the roster, Williamson’s second in command managed to pick up the slack in his absence. Even though there were many people, including Shaquille O’Neal, who did not believe that the Pelicans would manage to pull off this feat, BI chose to ignore their opinion just like he ignored McCollum’s call.
Brandon Ingram stats during the Kings clash
During his 37 minutes on the court, Brandon Ingram successfully managed to secure a score of 24 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists to his name. His points total was higher than what he had scored during his previous 10 matchups and significantly higher than the 20.8 points that he had been averaging during the course of the regular season.
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The 26-year-old also worked upon to use his shooting ability to his advantage. He went 10-20 in terms of his field goals and successfully made 3-3 free throws. This is the first time since the player returned after recovering from his left knee injury that he has managed to deliver a performance of this scale. Despite the fact that he had 3 fouls by the time the game entered the 2 quarter, he still wanted to go on.
“I thought I could control the game” said Ingram during the post-game press conference. “I thought I controlled the game the 1st and 2nd quarters. I knew that it was about time for us to go on a run”.
"I thought I could control the game. I thought I controlled the game the 1st and 2nd quarters. I knew that it was about time for us to go on a run"
— Brandon Ingram on being adamant about staying in the game with 3 fouls pic.twitter.com/PhDVrFVjkT
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) April 20, 2024
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What were your thoughts on Brandon Ingram’s performance? Let us know in the comments down below.