- A franchise player out for the season. A first-year head coach. A 1-12 start. The New Orleans Pelicans overcame it all and stormed back to make the playoffs.
Ingram scored five of the Pelicans' final 12 points to send them into the fourth trailing 84-74.
"Just having faith in each other and staying connected," Green said of the Pelicans' mindset."Knowing we took their best shot and we're only down 10 going into the fourth."After the Clippers scored to go up by 13 points, the Pelicans ran off 11 straight points and then McCollum hit a 3-pointer to tie it, 88-all.That sparked a 10-0 run that gave the Pelicans a 101-94 lead, capped by Murphy's 3-pointer that bounced on the rim and went in.
"Murphy had huge stones to come in and make those big shots they needed when they were struggling to score the basketball," Lue said. The Clippers twice closed within two in the final 1:17, but they missed 2 of 4 free throws and Jackson and Morris missed shots down the stretch to see their season slip away.The Clippers, who made the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history last year, also were missing
. The league's 3-point percentage leader didn't play because of a sore right hamstring that kept him out of the loss at Minnesota on Tuesday in the team's first play-in game.Clippers: Hadn't missed the playoffs since 2017-18 season. ...