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Andrew LopezESPN
Last Saturday, after a disappointing loss to the San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson told reporters he felt his team was close to what it wanted to be. The Pelicans had just played two tough games with losses against the Milwaukee Bucks and Spurs, but he thought things could change soon.
“I feel like we’re almost there,” said Williamson. “I really feel like we’re almost there. There are a few last things we need to figure out, but we’re almost there.”
Consider Monday night a step in the right direction.
Behind Williamson’s assault in the third quarter, the Pelicans toppled the team with the best record in the league, staying late to beat the Utah Jazz 129-124.
The Pelicans had a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but watched the Jazz cut the lead back to 1 in the last minute, before holding a few stops on Utah’s last three assets. Pelican coach Stan Van Gundy joked that his team was not holding the lead very well, but was able to build high enough to where Utah couldn’t get back.
The Jazz (27-8) entered the game 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) outperformed them by 16 in the third quarter on Monday, the worst third-quarter difference of the season for Utah.
“Tonight we wanted to come out strong in the third,” said Pelican point guard Lonzo Ball. “That was one of the concerns of the coaching staff. This game, Utah, blew people away in that third quarter, so that was one of the concerns. Z led the attack for us in the third quarter.”
Williamson scored 15 of his 26 points in the third quarter as the Pelicans built their lead.
“My mindset was all I can do to get the energy from my teammates, that’s what I’ll do,” said Williamson. “In the third quarter, after reading the first two quarters of their defense, I really got a feel for it and was on the offensive.”
Attacking the basket was the focus of the pelicans all night. They finished with 74 points in paint, the highest number a team has scored in paint in regulations against Jazz in the past 25 seasons, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information.
“It’s crazy that we got to the basket so often with a defensive player like Rudy Gobert, where he’s on the edge all night, every night,” said Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram of Utah’s All-Star center. “But we did it.”
By scoring so much in the paint, the Pelicans didn’t have to rely on three-point tries. New Orleans went 7-for-11 from a 3-point range, and the 11 tries were the fewest in a game by a winning team in the past four seasons, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information. Coupled with Utah’s 43 tries from deep, the game had the biggest difference between two teams for three-run attempts this season.
When Williamson scored in the third quarter, the Pelicans stuck with him and even went straight to Gobert, a two-time defensive player of the year, a few times.
“It means he’s fearless,” said Ingram of 20-year-old Williamson. “Knowing that [Gobert is] a two-time defensive player of the year or just a very, very, very good defensive player, he’s just fearless. He knows the angles of the shot. He knows what to do when he enters the game. He will not hesitate for anyone. He will go on and on until he gets where he wants to go. “
So far this season, the Pelicans have won victories against Utah, Milwaukee and the Phoenix Suns, as well as a 24-point comeback over the Boston Celtics, but they have also lost against the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves, teams at the bottom of the standings in their respective conferences.
For a team that Williamson thinks it is “almost there,” Van Gundy said the Pelicans have enough talent to beat anyone in the league, but they make too many mistakes and have not been consistent enough in their defense to combine wins. as they wish. .
Williamson agreed.
“To take it to the next level, we have to continue it for the next few games,” said Williamson. “We have to be consistent with it.”