Brandon Ingram leads blowout win as Pelicans bury Kings in Western Conference play-in race
De’Aaron Fox stared up at the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter Wednesday night at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, seemingly wondering how the game and his team’s season had gone so wrong.
The Kings needed a win in the worst way to gain ground in the Western Conference play-in race, but Brandon Ingram wouldn’t allow it, scoring 33 points to lead the New Orleans Pelicans to a resounding 125-95 victory.
Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Pelicans (26-36), who have won three in a row to move ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers for 10th in the West. CJ McCollum added 17 points, six rebounds and nine assists.
Fox scored 25 points for the Kings (23-41), who have lost five of their last six to fall 18 games under .500. Harrison Barnes had 19 points. Domantas Sabonis finished with 15 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists.
Fox acknowledged that the loss felt like a big blow to his team’s already faint playoff hopes.
“Definitely, being one of the teams that we’re chasing, this was a game that we definitely needed,” Fox said. “Especially if it were to come down to it, and we were to have the same record as them, then you need tiebreakers and things like that.”
The Kings only trailed by four at halftime, but they were outscored 31-21 in the third quarter and 29-13 in the fourth. Sacramento shot 50% in the first half, but went 14 of 41 (.341) from the field with only seven assists in the second half.
Ingram made 15 of 19 from the field to help New Orleans shoot 59.1%. The Pelicans amassed a 50-38 rebounding advantage and outscored the Kings 26-10 in fastbreak points.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” interim Kings coach Alvin Gentry said. “I think we came in with the right attitude. I think we started to press a little bit in the second half when we got down by nine or 10, and by doing that, we stooped the ball movement and we started to try to do things on our own, and that’s what got us in trouble.”
The Kings desperately needed a victory to avoid falling further behind the Pelicans, Blazers and San Antonio Spurs in the play-in race. They had a chance to gain on two of those teams with a back-to-back set against the Pelicans on Wednesday and Spurs on Thursday, but instead they find themselves fading into the distance.
The Pelicans moved a half-game ahead of Portland for the final play-in berth. The Kings now trail the Pelicans by four games. They are 3½ games behind the Blazers and two games behind the Spurs going into Thursday’s game in San Antonio.
The Kings only have 18 games remaining with a difficult schedule ahead, but Sabonis still believes they control their own fate.
“It’s in our hands,” Sabonis said. “We control our future and we’ve got to win as many games as we can these last 18. Today was an important one. We’re going to see (the Pelicans) again (April 5) and tomorrow (against the Spurs) is a must-win. These are the teams we’re fighting to get into that play-in spot.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 9:17 PM.
