Suns vs. Pelicans score, takeaways: Brandon Ingram leads New Orleans to crucial

We officially have a series on our hands. The New Orleans Pelicans made a push late against the Phoenix Suns, in Game 2, and pulled out a 125-114 win over the No. 1-seeded Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.  Led by a 37-point performance from Brandon Ingram, and another 23 points from CJ McCollum, the Pelicans held off a Phoenix team that fought until the very end of the game. Not many people expected New Orleans to even win a game in this series, but now the Pelicans will be heading back to Louisiana with a win under their belt and momentum going into Game 3.

On the other end, the Suns really never were able to build up a big enough lead to blow this game wide open. But while this loss will leave a bad taste in Phoenix’s mouth, the bigger concern is the health of Devin Booker, who left in the third quarter with right hamstring tightness. He didn’t return to the game after putting up 31 points in the first half, and is expected to get an MRI on his injured hamstring. 

Here are three takeaways from the Pelicans’ Game 2 win over the Suns. 

1. Brandon Ingram was unstoppable

There was a point early in the third quarter where Ingram looked like he was laboring a bit every trip up the floor. He was grimacing after every possession on offense and looked to favor one side as he gingerly moved around on defense. It was later discovered that he rolled his ankle at some point as he landed awkwardly after a jump shot. 

Here’s how the injury occurred:

As painful as that looked, it never kept Ingram out of the game for any significant amount of time, and it certainly didn’t slow his production for the Pelicans. The Suns didn’t have an answer for the versatile forward all night, ankle roll and all. He was drilling 3s, charging at the rim with great finesse and was making incredibly difficult shots from the midrange, too. Ingram’s 10 points in the fourth quarter proved to be clutch for New Orleans as it fought tooth and nail for this win against the top-seeded Suns. 

It really didn’t matter who the Suns put in front of Ingram, he was torching every defender in sight. Ingram’s game has always stood out because of his unique skill set at his size. He moves so gracefully across the floor, and his ability to score at all three levels makes him a tough assignment for even the best perimeter defender. He was feasting on smaller defenders down in the block, killing them with turnaround jumpers. If it wasn’t that, then he was getting switches off of screens to create space and drill mid-range jumpers.

Ingram was just dominant from start to finish against the Suns, and Phoenix will have to figure out a way to contain him heading into Game 3, because right now it doesn’t look like anyone is capable of slowing him down.