Brandon Ingram, Jahlil Okafor Guide Pelicans Past Nuggets for 1st Win of Season
The New Orleans Pelicans got into the 2019-20 win column with a 122-107 home victory over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday at Smoothie King Center.
Four Pelicans scored 19 or more points, led by Jahlil Okafor's 26. New Orleans shot 53.2 percent from the field and hit 15 of 33 three-pointers.
Michael Porter Jr. led seven Nuggets in double figures with 15 points in his NBA debut.
The Pels have started the year 1-4 without star rookie Zion Williamson, who is recovering from a torn meniscus. The 3-2 Nuggets have dropped two straight.
Notable Performances
Nuggets F Michael Porter Jr.: 15 points, 4 rebounds
Nuggets C Nikola Jokic: 13 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds
Pelicans PG Lonzo Ball: 9 points, 8 assists
Pelicans PF Brandon Ingram: 25 points, 5 assists
Pelicans C Jahlil Okafor: 26 points, 5 rebounds
Pelicans G Frank Jackson: 21 points
Brandon Ingram Stakes Claim as League's Most Improved Player
The season is only five games old for the Pelicans, but Brandon Ingram looks like an All-Star and the league's top Most Improved Player candidate.
Ingram has run with the opportunity to be the Pelicans alpha, posting 26.8 points on 51.0 percent shooting, 8.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists.
The Pels' scoring and rebounding leader shined again Wednesday against a Nuggets team that finished second in last year's Western Conference standings, none more so than when he unleashed this fourth-quarter hammer:
Ingram did an excellent job pushing the tempo and leading the Pels' efficient offensive night, and that included setting up his teammates for easy buckets:
Per Will Guillory of The Athletic, Ingram's night marked his fourth straight 25-point performance, a personal-best streak.
Ingram is a restricted free agent next summer, and based on early returns, he's about to get paid.
This doesn't seem to be a fluke, either. As Trevor Lane of Lakers Nation noted, Ingram was lighting it up last winter before being diagnosed with season-ending deep venous thrombosis.
Per Basketball Reference, the ex-Duke forward posted 27.8 points on 57.0 percent shooting and 7.5 rebounds in the six games before his season ended prematurely.
If Ingram keeps this up, a fantastic season is in the works, and ex-teammate Nick "Swaggy P" Young thinks he may take home some hardware:
Regardless, the Pels have a star in Ingram, making them one of the top teams to watch when Williamson returns to the court.
Michael Porter Jr. Shines, Nuggets Defense and 3-Point Shooting Suffers
There was very little positive to take away from the Nuggets' loss to a winless team without its future franchise star, but Michael Porter Jr. did offer one bright spot.
Porter, whom the Nuggets drafted 14th overall in 2018, sat out all of last season as he recovered from a second back surgery. The first one prevented him from playing all but three games in his lone season at Missouri in 2017-18.
But the Nuggets may have landed a gem in Porter, who dropped a team-high 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting in just 21 minutes.
Porter looked smooth in his first NBA regular-season action, slicing through the lane for his first hoop:
He also cleaned up the boards for a putback layup:
Porter isn't about to play 30-35 minutes per game anytime soon, but Wednesday showed that he can give Denver 20-25 quality minutes off the bench in its quest to improve upon last year's Western Conference Semifinals showing.
This year's Nuggets team has two areas of concern: three-point shooting and inconsistent defensive efforts.
Sometimes, shots just don't fall from beyond the arc, and they didn't with Denver going 7-of-26 from deep. But the Nuggets are now just 34.6 percent from the three-point line, which puts them in the bottom half of the league.
Denver can compensate for its outside shooting woes with tight defense, but the Nuggets defense did not fare well Thursday. Nick Kosmider of The Athletic pointed out center Nikola Jokic's efforts against Pels big man Jahlil Okafor, in particular:
Jokic shouldn't be the scapegoat, however, as the Nuggets were beaten soundly in transition:
The Pels outpaced the Nuggets 37-20 in fast-break points, and after the game, head coach Mike Malone was displeased with his team's effort:
Denver's three-game winning streak to open the season is well in the rearview mirror now after two straight losses.
The Nuggets aren't getting any breaks during their upcoming schedule, either, with a road game at the 2-2 Orlando Magic, home games against the 4-1 Miami Heat and 4-0 Philadelphia 76ers and a visit to the 3-1 Minnesota Timberwolves lined up.
What's Next?
The Pelicans will start a two-game road trip against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The Nuggets will hit the road on the same day against the Orlando Magic at 7 p.m ET.
