Lonzo Ball’s clutch shot making lifts Pelicans to win over Warriors

Monday’s game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Golden State Warriors was over before it had barely begun. After one quarter, the Warriors raced out to an 18-point lead against the Pelicans, who looked like they wished they were on vacation, or napping, or both.

Twenty-four hours later, those teams met again at Smoothie King Center. This time, the Pelicans put up a much stronger fight. Lonzo Ball, who scored a career-high 33 points, bounced back after a dreadful shooting performance Monday, and New Orleans (12 turnovers) took much better care of the ball.

The Pelicans beat the Warriors 108-103. By splitting the back-to-back, they stayed within two games of the 10th-place San Antonio Spurs. They must make up that ground in their next six games to qualify for the Western Conference play-in tournament.

“It’s not like our team is going to die or let go of the rope,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “They haven’t all year. It’s a resilient group. It’s the third time in the last five or six games that we’ve made really good comebacks late. Denver, Minnesota, tonight. This is a group that fights. Last night, we took a beating, but we came right back tonight.”

Two of the Pelicans’ starters, Brandon Ingram and Steven Adams, exited the game with injuries in the third quarter, but New Orleans persevered anyway.

Ball connected on a pair of clutch 3s in the final 3½ minutes. With 3:18 remaining, he hit one that whittled the lead to three. Then, roughly a minute later, he tied the game at 98 with another triple.

New Orleans got a stop on its ensuing possession, and Eric Bledsoe capitalized with a mid-range make.

The Pelicans survived even though Warriors star Stephen Curry went supernova for the first three quarters. Curry came out smoldering, scoring 17 points in the first quarter. He connected on 8 of 20 3-pointers.

In the third quarter, Curry was about to line up a 3 when the lights at Smoothie King Center briefly went out. 

The Pelicans trailed by four points going into the fourth quarter. In the final 12 minutes of play, Curry cooled down, shooting 1 of 7 from the field. That, plus Ball’s late-game heroics, allowed New Orleans to outscore Golden State 33-25 in the fourth. 

“Steph is Steph,” Zion Williamson said. “Let me go ahead and say that. Like I’ve said about a lot of players who are that caliber, it’s only so much you can do, to be honest. I think the best you can do is just try to tire him out in any way. I think our guards did a great job of just trying to pick him up full court.”

Ball broke a tie with 25.3 seconds remaining with a step-back jumper, his 28th and 29th points of the game. 

After Ball’s make, New Orleans came up with a timely stop. In the open floor, Williamson got fouled, which the officials deemed a clear path violation. The Pelicans’ 20-year-old star stepped to the free-throw line and stretched his team’s lead to four points with 15.9 seconds remaining.

“That loose ball was a winning basketball play,” Van Gundy said. “That’s what we talked about today. Over these last seven games, counting tonight, we want to focus on playing winning basketball. We talked about taking care of the ball.”

That was enough cushion against Curry and Co. 

Ball scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, and New Orleans responded after coming out flat Monday with one of its best wins of the season.

“That’s what we were trying to do, was get Lonzo in front of the ball there, so if they wanted to go down, he could have the pass and knock down shots,” Van Gundy said. “When he’s making shots, it’s a whole different world for us.”

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