It’s November. 17 and defending NBA champions Denver Nuggets is in New Orleans for an important in-season tournament contest. 9:07 left in first quarter, Pelicans wing Brandon Ingram corrals a rebound off a Jonas Valanciunas Missed the 3 and stood one foot behind the free throw line.
To his right, Williamson, three feet back from the 3-point line and on the backpedal, sees Ingram’s reel loose and sprints to the basket on the right side of the court.
Ingram immediately spotted him, firing a bounce pass between two defenders to a slashing Williamson. Once he collected the ball, Williamson took a hard dribble and threw down a thunderous dunk with his left hand, drawing the initial timeout from Denver coach Michael Malone.
As the teams headed to their respective benches, Ingram gave Williamson a pointed finger point, a quick acknowledgment. It’s a demonstration of their building chemistry, a small but important sign that both know how much they mean to each other — and how much this relationship means to the team.
Three and a half quarters later, New Orleans Pelicans Beginning to surface old. They held a late one-point lead against the defending NBA champs after building a 20-point cushion midway through the third quarter. An all-too-familiar feeling — of dread, of yet another depressing and unnecessary loss — entered the arena. Ten days ago, this same Pelicans team was outscored by 20 points — and lost by 18 — to this same Nuggets team.
With 3:21 left and down one, the Nuggets have possession and a chance to take the lead. Aaron Gordon Feeds the ball to the two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who have Valanciunas sealed off the paint. When Jokic turns right, the Pelicans look to the second-year guard Dyson Daniels Have to take the ball away.
From there, New Orleans’ two best players took over. On the ensuing possession, Ingram drove the Nuggets guard back Kentavis Caldwell-Pope And passes to Daniels, who immediately lifts it to Ingram in the short corner. By Ingram’s 16-foot splash.
On the next possession, Williamson dribbles down the court, splits Gordon, Jokic and Christian Brownand ends with a left-handed layup in front of the rim.
Thirty seconds later, Williamson is at it again. He brings the ball up and executes quick handoff action with Ingram at the top of the key. Ingram put it right back, and Williamson hit a 13-foot jumper in the lane, drawing the and-1.
Williamson missed the free throw, but Daniels got the rebound and found Ingram. With the shot clock ticking down, Ingram dribbled to his left, got to the free throw line and went up for another 16-footer.
The Swish Pelicans took an eight-point lead. Timeout Nuggets.
Williamson greeted Ingram as he walked back to the Pelicans’ bench. The two give each other a quick handshake, as the Pelicans position themselves to secure an in-season tournament win.
It was their second win in a row — a short streak that belies its significance.
Because four days ago, the Pelicans had lost five straight games by an average margin of defeat of more than 14 points. They were unsettled, playing hero ball, devastated by the hit — again.
Little did they know, the next day, their entire season would change.
five days ago For the win over Denver, Dallas Mavericks Traveled to New Orleans and led by 29 points before walking away with a 12-point win. After starting the season 4-1, the Pelicans sat in ninth place in the West at 4-6.
After the game, Williamson, who scored 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting but committed a season-high six turnovers, sat in front of Lecter and talked about the loss in a postgame press conference. “Right now, it’s hard,” he said. “I’m taking a little back seat right now. I’m trusting the process. I’m doing my best to buy now.”
Handing them their fifth straight loss, the Pelicans’ young season hit a low point.
Injuries were accumulating. The Pelicans were without a guard CJ McCollumwho was out for weeks with a partially torn lung and wing Trey Murphywho has yet to make his season debut due to a torn meniscus.
Herb Jones missed three games. Nazi Marshal Just came back. Jose Alvarado did not play
McCollum, who was in the hospital for the birth of his daughter between the Nov. 12 and 14 games against Dallas, said on his podcast that he called veteran Larry Nance after the poor loss. They agreed that they had both seen enough.
So Nance called a meeting for the players only. Noon. Another disappointing loss in the Williamson-Ingram era after nearly 18 hours.
Inside the locker room at the Pelicans’ practice facility, the team huddled for about an hour. Multiple sources said the meeting was not contentious and the players accepted criticism from their peers.
“You can’t win a basketball game if you don’t swim on the same side,” Nance told ESPN. “And for whatever reason, we felt a little disjointed early, even when we were up 4-1.
“It felt a little bit like we could have been better. And I thought we did a great job of addressing exactly what we needed to address and walked into the meeting with a clear direction and direction that the meeting was supposed to take. That.”
In the Pelicans’ first game after the meeting, New Orleans responded with a 131–110 victory over the same Mavericks team that forced the meeting and finished with a then-season-high 33 assists. The Pelicans have won seven of the nine games Williamson and Ingram have played together since the meeting.
“We weren’t on the same page,” Williamson said. “Now … we know what we want to do, we know how we’re going to do it, and [if] We win, we win. But if we lose, it’s easy to spot where we messed up.”
And what’s become clear is what seemed clear before — the Pelicans go as far as taking their two All-Stars with them.
“We follow their lead. They’re our two best players. As they go, we go,” Nance said.
“They came out and were monsters. And when those two go like that, the rest of us have no choice [but to] Follow their lead.”
in the past Meeting, 2023-2024 Ingram-Williamson minutes were troublingly poor. In 147 minutes split between the two, the team scored 103.2 points per 100 possessions and allowed 110.9 points per 100 possessions.
In the previous three seasons the pair played (Williamson missed the 2021-22 season), the duo always had a positive net rating. But they haven’t played together since Nov. 25, 2022 — and it showed.
Since the meeting, the Pelicans own a 127.6 offensive rating in the 152 minutes the two have played together, with a 106.1 defensive rating. Both will lead the NBA.
“That’s the most we’ve played consistently together and so it just keeps getting better,” Ingram told ESPN. “Communication picked up, which helps a lot on the floor, on the floor, just talking about the game.”
Over five seasons, Williamson and Ingram played a combined 2,225 minutes. Chicago Bulls teammate Jack Lavin And Nikola Vucevic Played a combined 2,236 minutes last season.
Ingram said he and Williamson are constantly having conversations about where the other wants the ball. They talk about shooting, practicing, how and where and when to set others up to succeed.
They have been working together extra after practice with assistant coach James Borrego specifically on their pick-and-roll game.
“We did it from day one and the more we do it, the better we get,” Williamson told ESPN. “And really, it’s just a mental and visual thing.
“I think just me and BI seeing the spots and how it was on the court, I think that visual helps us, OK, if I come off the screen, throw it, or when I set a screen, set it. choice thisGive BI time to get downhill and into the middle of it.”
And as the two grow together, so does the group they lead.
Before the meeting, the Pelicans averaged 22.9 assists per game, 26th in the league. Since then, they are dishing out 28.8 assists per game, the fifth-best mark in the league.
“Not until this year where we’ve been more vocal about the little nuances of basketball,” Williamson said. “I think that’s just us growing, communicating more in the game and off the court. And then the coaches, especially coach JB, catch me and BI in practice and work on different sets.”
New Orleans has had more success going to its “Point Zion” set where Williamson brings the ball up and initiates the offense.
According to Second Spectrum data, since Nov. 14, Williamson has carried the ball 17.3 possessions per game and the Pelicans have averaged 1.17 points per possession. Before: 8.8 possessions per game, 0.93 points per possession.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that can start our plays,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “I think that helps, but then there comes a time in the game where we want to put the ball in Zion’s hands. We want to put it in Brandon’s hands and we want to work with those two guys, maybe our middle 5. Some shooters from the floor and in the corners. Keep it up and let the dominoes fall.”
Seventeen days later They face the most important hour of the season San Antonio Spurs On December 1, Williamson and Ingram combined to go 7 of 23 from the field, with Ingram missing all four of his 3-point attempts. Only 26 points out of them.
And New Orleans still comes out with a win.
McCollum scored 19 points after returning from injury. Valanciunas posted one of his best games of the season with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Murphy made his debut and scored 18 points off the bench, including four 3-pointers — all of which were assisted by either Ingram or Williamson.
Even when they’re not scoring, Williamson and Ingram will lead New Orleans to where they believe they can go. Now eighth in the West at 11-10, the Pelicans are ready to fight Sacramento Kings Monday in the quarterfinals of the in-season tournament.
“None of them are the most vocal people,” Nance said, “so we needed to see them show us through their work.”
Said Ingram: “We’re starting to understand the responsibility, and guys are starting to look to us to start everything.”
“They’re going to see us be the best we can be offensively and defensively and they’re going to get after us.”
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