NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans started their climb back to the top of the Western Conference standings this weekend with wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings.
After Sunday's win against the Kings head coach Willie Green Weight was asked if ending the losing streak took a weight off the team's shoulders.
He said, "it does you know you just looking to get that one win to get over the hump. Saturday was that game for us. We knew we were getting better. We were getting closer, but it felt great to get that win and then tonight [Sunday night] to turn around quick like that and not have two of our starters."
They had lost ten straight and dropped out of the Play-In Tournament. Their back-to-back wins have them in ninth place. This puts them just two and a half games back of third place.
Injuries have plagued the Pels all season. Starting center Jonas Valanciunas left Saturday's game with a sore right quadriceps muscle and did not play on Sunday. Brandon Ingram also missed Sunday's game with left great toe soreness.
Ingram arguably had his best game of the season in the team's win against the Lakers, putting up 35 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.
The Pels are still awaiting the return of Zion Williamson. Williamson has now missed 18 straight games with a right hamstring strain. He could be out until the All-Star break.
With Ingram out on Sunday, Trey Murphy III scored a season-high 30 points on just 11 shots. Murphy made 4 threes and scored 21 points in the win against the Lakers. He hit two deep threes back-to-back at the beginning of the fourth quarter to give the Pels the lead, and they never lost it.
"Sky is the limit for Trey. He's going to continue to get better, his game is going to continue to open up," Green said.
Murphy said B.I. [Brandon Ingram] was out, so somebody had to be B.I.
Larry Nance Jr. stepped up this weekend with Valanciunas going down. Nance nearly had a double-double in both contests, with 10 points and 9 rebounds in each game.
The Pelicans will host the Atlanta Hawks in the Smoothie King Center on Tuesday.
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