New Orleans Pelicans stunned the Phoenix Suns thanks to Brandon Ingram, who scored 37 points to help his team tie the series at 1 win a piece leading them to a 125-114 victory.
That was the first playoff win for Pelicans since 2018 as Willie Green’s team withstood Phoenix’s multiple runs to secure the win. The Suns not only lose the game but, they also watched star guard Devin Booker going down with a hamstring injury early in the third quarter.
Booker had an excellent game until then with 31 points in the first half. The Suns were trailing 74-77 at that point as Pelicans and Ingram were able to close the game in a high note. Phoenix could not recover from losing its best scorer and they eventually dropped the game.
The Pelicans rallied, getting big 3s from Jose Alvarado, Ingram and McCollum to take an advantage early in the fourth quarter. They would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the contest as Ingram hit back-to-back smooth jumpers in the closing minutes to put the game in bed.
Ingram shot 13 of 21 shooting from the field, while CJ McCollum added another great performance as a Pelican with 23 points. McCollum nearly had a triple-double, adding nine assists and eight rebounds. Ingram was also close to a triple-double with 11 rebounds and nine assists.
New Orleans shot a massive 56 percent from the field, while they dished 32 assists. As for the Suns they could not handle the Pelicans’ 34-22 third quarter run as their star went down and not returned to the game.
Chris Paul finished with 17 points and 14 assists, but shot just 5 of 16 from the field after his excellent Game 1 performance. Now the series is heading to New Orleans with Game 3 being on Friday in the Smoothie King Center.
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