Pelicans cruise past Kings to claim West's No. 8 seed
Brandon Ingram had 24 points, six rebounds, and six assists to help the New Orleans Pelicans secure the Western Conference's final playoff spot with a 105-98 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.
Jonas Valanciunas had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Trey Murphy III added 16 points, eight rebounds, and six assists as New Orleans cruised despite Zion Williamson's absence (left hamstring strain).
"We knew how important today was, knew where we wanted to be, we knew where we belong," Ingram said. "It's been two years since we've been in the playoffs, and now we get another chance to go out there and continue to fight."
Larry Nance Jr. (13 points), Naji Marshall (11) and Jose Alvarado (10) scored off the bench for the Pelicans, who will face the top-seeded Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. That series begins Sunday in Oklahoma City.
This season, New Orleans has gone 6-0 against the Kings, including the play-in victory.
"This is the sixth time we played them and we had to beat them six times to make the playoffs, so we knew how disciplined we had to be," Alvarado said. "It was a great win."
For the Kings, De'Aaron Fox scored 35 points, grabbed seven rebounds, assisted five times, and stole three. Domantas Sabonis finished with 23 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, and three steals, while Harrison Barnes had 17 and Keegan Murray had 11. Sacramento will miss the playoffs for the 17th time in the last 18 seasons.
Kings coach Mike Brown said, "We just came up short when we didn't want to. ... Our guys competed. They tried to leave everything out on the floor. The turnovers caught up to us ... You have to give their bench credit. Nance, Marshall and Alvarado scored 34 points. That's a great night for them, a tough night for us."
Williamson was injured in New Orleans' Tuesday loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and will be re-evaluated in about two weeks.
Ingram said of his game plan in the absence of Williamson, "It's more of a scoring role. I do everything on the floor still but just go out and be more aggressive. The margin of effort is way shorter now. Every time down the floor, we got to get a good shot, we got to get defensive stops and we got to rebound the basketball. We know that's most important in the playoffs."
The Pelicans shot 51.8% from the field, including 7 of 19 (36.8 percent) from three points.
Sacramento made 40.9 percent of its shots, including 11 of 41 (26.8 percent) from behind the arc.
Fox said of the Kings' disappointing finish, "There's something to build off of still. The West isn't getting any easier so obviously it's a disappointment to not get into the playoffs and be one of those eight teams."
SportsLigue