Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram face their biggest test yet as the Pelicans’ injuries mount

NEW ORLEANS — Learning how to execute late in the fourth quarter can be an arduous process for all young teams, but those who have the most success in such situations understand one rule: Keep it simple.

That’s exactly what the New Orleans Pelicans did in a 125-118 win over the Indiana Pacers on Friday night, doing what fans asked them to do with the game on the line: Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram into one Bring action and let them find out.

The Pelicans let their two best players do everything they could in the final moments of the fourth quarter and consistently produced good shots. This is what it should look like when one of the NBA’s most powerful offensive duos works together and commits to doing all the little things that lead to victory. Williamson finished with 34 points and 10 assists. Ingram had 26 points and seven assists. They scored or assisted on 25 of the team’s final 28 points.

“That’s what they’re capable of doing night after night. We saw it in all its glory tonight,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said.

But this win and the performances of Williamson and Ingram were much bigger than just the clutch improvement. Friday’s game was a moment of truth for the Pelicans and their two most important players.

New Orleans returned home after suffering three straight double-digit losses on the road, and the team’s growing list of injuries to key players had some worried about where the season was headed.

The Pelicans were already without Dejounte Murray because of a broken hand and Trey Murphy because of a hamstring strain. Then, hours before Friday’s game, the team announced that CJ McCollum would be out two to three weeks with a right adductor muscle strain and Herb Jones would be out two to four weeks with a right shoulder strain.

That’s four of the team’s top six players who will be on the roster for several weeks. And that’s not to mention the serious injuries that players like Jordan Hawkins, Yves Missi and Daniel Theis are dealing with.

With injuries hanging over the team like a dark cloud, another performance similar to the last three games would all but confirm that New Orleans was in full spiral less than two weeks into the regular season. How could this team avoid the impending doom they seemingly faced on Friday afternoon?

The answer is another simple one: Williamson and Ingram.

If the Pelicans have any hope of surviving the deluge of injuries that plagued this roster early in the season, Williamson and Ingram will have to pick up the remaining pieces and carry them as far as they can, just like they did in the fourth quarter on Friday night.

Good won’t be good enough in the next few weeks. Williamson and Ingram will need to be consistently great to give this team a chance to compete in its current form. If that doesn’t happen, New Orleans could fall into a hole that will be extremely difficult to recover from in a highly competitive Western Conference.

“They’re already carrying a big load offensively, now they probably have to carry a heavier load,” Hawkins said Friday. “You’re ready for it.”

Given everything that has led the Pelicans to this point, finding themselves at this crossroads will be the most difficult and intriguing challenge for Williamson and Ingram since they joined forces in 2019.

Last season, Williamson and Ingram each had the most successful year of their respective careers, helping the Pelicans win 49 regular season games in a top-tier Western Conference. However, that wasn’t because either of them played at such an astonishingly high level.

Williamson and Ingram did not make it to the All-Star Game or an All-NBA team until the end of the season. Williamson had his lowest scoring average (22.9 points) since his rookie season and Ingram (20.8 points) averaged fewer points than ever before in a Pelicans uniform.

For this team to be so successful, it was important that the Stars willingly took a step back and let the depth of the roster shine through. In games where Ingram scored fewer than 20 points, the score was 20-10. They were 13-8 when Williamson failed to score 20 points. Teams with legitimate stars don’t win as often if their stars don’t dominate. The duo must dominate in the next few weeks. The greatness of Williamson and Ingram needs to shine through so the others can fit into their proper roles.

But it’s not just about putting up big numbers.

On Tuesday night, Williamson and Ingram combined for 61 points on the road against the Warriors, and New Orleans still lost by 18 points. They know that a stagnant offense and an over-reliance on one-on-one basketball will only lead to more problems.

“When me and BI are on the pitch, I think we are so convinced that one of us can do something against two to four defenders that we become stagnant,” admitted Williamson.

For this version of the Pelicans to be successful, the two best players will need to come out on top every night with their production, physicality and urgency. It was the strength with which they played, rather than the points that Williamson and Ingram accounted for, that stood out most on Friday. They attacked early and often rather than waiting for the defense to step up against them. They haven’t settled down. They were active and communicated consistently on defense.

It was clear that they weren’t going to let their team lose that night. Players of their caliber can have such a big impact on a game when they’re fully committed – even if their supporting cast includes relative unknowns like Brandon Boston Jr., Jamal Cain and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

But can Williamson and Ingram maintain the energy and focus needed to succeed with this group? If yes, for how long? These tests can determine where the Pelicans stand in the standings once the reinforcements heal and return to the lineup. And it could ultimately determine whether this duo is as good as so many still believe.

“It was a big growth moment for her. A step in the right direction,” said Green. “They know the team is relying on their leadership right now.”

It’s also ironic that Williamson and Ingram are the two people who can save this Pelicans season, because the frustration surrounding these two in New Orleans as pillars of the franchise lies in how often they have been unavailable due to injuries . While everyone else is now dropping like flies, they are the last two left standing.

Despite all the success the Pelicans had in the 2023-24 season, the season ultimately went south as Williamson suffered a hamstring injury that forced him to miss the playoffs and Ingram recovered from a knee injury. It all contributed to him having perhaps the worst four-game stretch of his Pelicans career, as the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated New Orleans in the first round of the playoffs.

Frustration over missing another opportunity due to injuries led the front office to make some drastic moves this summer. They acquired Murray so he could be Williamson’s new co-star and the team’s vocal leader. After showing little interest in signing Ingram to the extension he sought this summer, the Pelicans spent most of the offseason looking for potential trade partners who would be interested in acquiring Ingram. After failing to find a deal that made sense, they decided to bring Ingram back even though he is playing out the final season of his current contract.

It’s fair to say that the Pelicans made significant changes over the summer because they ultimately concluded that Williamson and Ingram couldn’t lead them to the promised land – at least not at the price that would have been required to get them stick together in the long term.

Now the only way to salvage this season is to rely on the star duo that might have been broken up months ago if the front office had its way. If the two can continue to draw on what they discovered Friday night, it will be interesting to see if that impacts how these two are perceived and how the front office may view the future – with or without them together.

“People always try to tell us we can’t play basketball together,” Williamson said of Ingram during his on-court postgame interview. “Me and him just want to have fun and make it happen. That’s what basketball is all about.”

(Stephen Lew/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)