Brandon Ingram scored 24 factors, Jonas Valanciunas added 19 factors and 12 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans booked a spot within the NBA playoffs with a 105-98 victory over the Sacramento Kings in a play-in event elimination sport on Friday night time.
The Pelicans received with out leading-scorer Zion Williamson, who strained his left hamstring proper as he reached the 40-point mark in a play-in loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night time.
Undaunted, New Orleans used a balanced method to improved to 8-5 this season with out Williamson within the lineup. Six gamers scored 10 or extra factors, together with reserves Larry Nance Jr. (13), Naji Marshall (11) and Jose Alvarado (10).
Trey Murphy III, beginning due to Williamson’s absence, added 16 factors for New Orleans.
De’Aaron Fox scored 35 factors for Sacramento, and Domantas Sabonis had 23 factors and 14 rebounds.
The sport was a take a look at of the Pelicans’ means to deal with the stress of a do-or-die sport after squandering two earlier possibilities to lock up a playoff berth at dwelling.
New Orleans misplaced to the Lakers of their regular-season finale on Sunday, lacking an opportunity to lock up the sixth seed, earlier than shedding once more to the Lakers on Tuesday. They entered their matchup with the Kings going through the potential of turning into the primary 49-win crew in additional than 50 years (Phoenix in 1972) to overlook the NBA playoffs.
As an alternative, New Orleans improved to 6-0 towards Sacramento this season, turning into the primary crew to go 6-0 in a season (with no playoff collection) towards an opponent since Denver towards Minnesota in 1994-95.
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The Pelicans additionally extended a streak of No. 7 seeds by no means lacking the playoffs because the play-in event was adopted by the NBA in 2020. Due to their loss to the Lakers on Tuesday, the Pelicans will open the playoffs as an eighth seed on Sunday at top-seeded Oklahoma Metropolis.
The Pelicans have been sloppy early, committing six first-quarter turnovers that led to 11 Kings factors. Sacramento led 24-17 after a turnover by Herb Jones led to a layup by Fox, who scored 18 factors within the first half.
McCollum’s reverse layup and Murphy’s 3 helped the Pelicans shortly closed the hole, and New Orleans constructed a 13-point lead within the second quarter.
Marshall gave the Pelicans a jolt with a 3 and a steal from Keegan Murray that he transformed right into a breakaway dunk. Murray appeared to harm himself when he fell whereas shedding the ball, and went to the locker room shortly after.
That improvement additional thinned the depth of a Kings squad already lacking Malik Monk (proper knee) and Kevin Huerter (left shoulder).
Valanciunas’ brief hook shot and Ingram’s layup put the Pelicans up 53-40 late within the half earlier than Fox’s 3 helped the Kings trim it to 54-45 at halftime.