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Andrew LopezESPN
NEW ORLEANS – Lonzo Ball, the New Orleans Pelicans’ point guard, is no stranger to rumors. He spent an entire season with the Los Angeles Lakers to hear how he could possibly settle before finally landing with the Pelicans in the summer of 2019. But when Ball tried to navigate a rough start to the 2020-21 season, his name started spinning in the rumor mill again.
To his credit, however, Ball responded with outstanding performances. In the Pelicans game Wednesday against Washington, Ball had nine points and four assists while hitting three three-pointers in the first half while guarding Bradley Beal before rolling a single and missing the second half.
Ball came into action again Friday night and played his best game of the season in a 131-126 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Ball scored a season-high 27 points (he tied his highlight in a Pelicans uniform), equaled a career-high seven points and had his second-best assist output of the season with eight.
“I just stay on the track,” Ball said when asked if he had extra motivation this week. “I played basketball for a long time. I did a lot of work and just tried to play my game. That’s how I play. I just try to stay away from all the noise and just go out there and try to help my team win games.”
Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy said he spoke to Ball earlier this week about being able to play through the noise and play at a high level.
“Nobody likes distraction, but you have distraction all the time,” Van Gundy told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s trade rumors, it’s COVID, it’s family, whatever it is. Other voices. There’s always distraction, and a big part of this league’s success is blocking distractions and being able to do your job.”
Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball, David Griffin, said on ESPN radio in New Orleans on Thursday that he thinks Ball is responding with one of his best halves of the year against the Wizards.
‘I think he just realized and came into a compartment in his situation. “It’s a good thing that people mention your name, because it means you are coveted by other teams, ‘Griffin told the radio station.
For Ball, the reaction meant he had to play with more aggression, something his coaches and teammates begged him to do all season.
Pelicans center Steven Adams, who had 20 rebounds against the Bucks, said if Ball plays aggressively and tries to get in the paint and trying to score, it only helps the whole offense.
“He did a very good job at it,” Adams said. ‘Again, brother, with any player, as a defensive player, if you see someone with that body language in terms of coming straight to you and wanting to do it, you take the corners, it forces you to make a pretty drastic decision take.
“It puts you in a difficult environment. Instead of being passive, defenses like, ‘Oh, honey, I can be passive, too.’ Our guys did a great job of taking corners that made it so that the defense had to turn and then we found the open guy from there. ‘
The Pelicans finished with 32 assists on the season, and Adams admitted to Ball that he was the spark of the offense on Friday. It also helped that the Pelicans made shots.
Apart from Ball’s big night, his back player Eric Bledsoe also had seven three-pointers. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Ball and Bledsoe became just the fifth starting lineup in NBA history to hit at least seven 3-pointers in the same game, along with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (three times), James Harden and Eric Gordon, Damon Stoudamire and Nick Van Exel, and Michael Dickerson and Cuttino Mobley.
While the ball movement on Friday was the key to the Pelicans’ success, the willingness to find the right shot also helped. And for Ball, it was to take the shot when it was passed to him. He was 6-for-9 on the catch-and-shoot 3-point, which showed he was willing to take the open look instead of trying to make the extra pass.
“We like to see it,” said Pelicans forward Zion Williamson. “If he shoots the ball like that with confidence, even if he misses it, only he who shoots it with the confidence it’s going in, that’s what we want So to do. He hit seven tonight and they were all big for us. . “