The Pelicans completed the biggest comeback in franchise history Sunday as New Orleans secured a 120-115 overtime win against the Boston Celtics.
The Pelicans erased a 24-point first half deficit to secure the victory and pick up their 13th win of the season.
"It was a big win for us because we stayed true to who we were,” Pelicans forward Zion Williamson said. “We rallied back. Everybody – coaches, players, ball boys – everybody was just engaged and we needed all that energy, and we pulled through."
New Orleans trailed 79-55 with 6:29 to play in the third quarter but were able to narrow that gap to 13 by the start of the fourth.
The Pelicans locked in defensively and were able had a 108-106 with 6.9 seconds to play but Celtics forward Jayson Tatum’s shot with .2 seconds to play sent the game to overtime. New Orleans however continued to play well defensively and held Boston to just seven points in the extra frame.
“Obviously, they’ve got three just incredibly gifted offensive guards, so to only give them 21 in the fourth is obviously a great effort, but I think the biggest thing is the effort,” Pelicans guard Josh Hart said. “And we’ve got to remember this game… So I think the biggest thing is that effort, that communication, that grit...we can remember that going into every other game, especially when teams do make a run.
“We can think back to this game and know that during that time, we didn't go our separate ways. We got closer together and we were able to pull out a tough win.”
Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy said he thought New Orleans’ showed good effort defensively in the first half but were hurting themselves with turnovers.
“We were far from perfect. In fact, if you look at the numbers, we didn’t shoot it well. There were a lot of things we didn’t do, but we kept fighting,” Van Gundy said. “We were down 24, we kept fighting and nobody dropped their heads tonight. We were resilient and we came away with a win. We made it interesting down the stretch for sure, but we ended up getting the job done.”
Both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, who finished with 28 and 33 points respectively, both had big second halves for New Orleans.
Williamson scored 24 points after the halftime breaks and Ingram added 20.
“I don’t know if their guys got tired or our guys had more force, but somehow we got Brandon (Ingram) and Zion (Williamson) a little bit more room to get downhill and to make some plays,” Van Sunday said. “I think part of it, having Nicolò (Melli) in the game in the fourth helped a little bit, because early, especially with Zion in, they were brining both bigs to him all the time.
“That gets a little tougher when Nicolò’s out there. Even though he only made the one shot, you’ve still got to play him a little bit. So that helped and then our guys just made big plays. Our guys made plays, but the biggest thing is they got stops. They got stops.”
