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Andrew LopezESPN
Last Saturday, after a disappointing loss to the San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans striker Zion Williamson told reporters he felt his team was close to what it wanted to be. Pelicans had just played two difficult games, with defeats to the Milwaukee Bucks and Spurs, but he thought things could soon change.
“I feel like we’re almost there,” said Williamson. “I really feel like we’re almost there. There are some final things we need to find out, but we’re almost there.”
Consider Monday night a step in the right direction.
After Williamson’s attack in the third quarter, the Pelicans took the team down with the league’s best record, holding late to defeat Utah Jazz 129-124.
The Pelicans maintained a 17-point lead at the start of the fourth period, but saw Jazz reduce it to 1 in the final minute before holding on to two stops in Utah’s last three possessions. Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy joked that his team did not hold the lead as much as it was able to build a high enough position that Utah could not return.
Jazz (27-8) came into play with a difference of 161 points in the third quarter of this season, which was 70 points better than any other team. But the Pelicans (15-19) overcame them by 16 in the third quarter on Monday, the worst gap in the third quarter of the season for Utah.
“Tonight, we wanted to come out strong on the third,” said Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball. “That was one of the focal points of the coaching staff. In this game, Utah has been throwing people out in that third quarter, so that was one of the focuses. Z kind of led the attack in the third for us.”
Williamson scored 15 of his 26 points in the third quarter, while the Pelicans built their lead.
“My mindset was all I could do to get the energy out of my teammates, that’s what I’m going to do,” said Williamson. “In the third quarter, after the first two quarters reading the defense, I really felt it and was on the attack.”
Attacking the basket was the focus of the Pelicans throughout the night. They finished with 74 points in the painting, the maximum that any team has scored in the painting in the regulation against Jazz in the last 25 seasons, according to the ESPN Stats & Information survey.
“It is crazy that we hit the basket so much with a defensive player like Rudy Gobert, where he stays in the ring all night, every night,” said Pelican striker Brandon Ingram of Utah’s All-Star pivot. “But we made it happen.”
Scoring so much in the painting meant that the Pelicans did not have to rely on 3-point attempts. New Orleans hit 7 out of 11 in the 3-point range, and the 11 attempts were the smallest in a game by any winning team in the past four seasons, according to the ESPN Stats & Information poll. Along with Utah’s 43 bottom attempts, the game had the biggest gap between two teams for 3-point attempts this season.
When Williamson was scoring in the third quarter, the Pelicans stayed with him and he even went straight to Gobert, twice Defense Player of the Year, on some occasions.
“It means he is not afraid,” said Ingram of Williamson, 20. “Knowing that [Gobert is] twice Defensive Player of the Year or just a very, very good defensive player, he is fearless. He knows the angles of the shot. He knows what to do when he enters the game. He will not waver for anyone. He will keep going and going until he gets where he wants to go. “
So far this season, the Pelicans have victories over Utah, Milwaukee and Phoenix Suns, as well as a 24-point recovery over the Boston Celtics, but they also have losses to the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves, teams in the bottom of the standings in their standings. respective conferences.
For a team that Williamson thinks is “almost there”, Van Gundy said the Pelicans are talented enough to defeat anyone in the league, but they make a lot of mistakes and have not been consistent enough in defense to tie the victories in the way they want.
Williamson agreed.
“In order for us to advance to the next level, we have to continue in the next games,” said Williamson. “We have to be consistent with that.”