After beating the Cavaliers to end their road trip, the Pelicans returned to New Orleans for the Rockets.
On the Pelicans' side, Zion ushered in a comeback, the Pelicans have home-court advantage, and the pressure on the Rockets to fight back-to-back can be imagined.
It is reported that the Pelicans currently rank fifth in the West with a regular season record of 17-12, and the Rockets rank eighth in the West with a regular season record of 14-12, and there is a strength gap between the two teams.
In the end, after a fierce battle in the 4th quarter of the game, with Shen Jing's excellent performance, the Rockets narrowly defeated the Pelicans 106-104 away
In fact, in the first quarter of the game, the Rockets were dominated by the opponents, Jalen Green continued to hit the Pelicans inside, the Rockets hit a 9-2 start to establish an advantage, Jabari Smith Jr. scored 11 points in a single quarter, and the Pelicans relied on Zion's 4 shots to hit all shots without missing shots to bite the score, and the Rockets led the Pelicans 26-24 in the first quarter.
Entering the second quarter, the Pelicans launched a counterattack, CJ McCollum and Varland teamed up to play a wave of small climaxes, Trey Murphy III continued to fire, Zion made consecutive fouls and walked to the free throw line, the Pelicans completed the overtake in one fell swoop, VanVleet helped the Rockets stop the bleeding, and the Pelicans overtook the Rockets 51-47 at halftime.
Yibian fought again, the Pelicans offense continued unabated, Ingram found his touch and scored 14 points in a single quarter, Herbert Jones hit two three-pointers in the bottom corner to add icing on the cake, and Shen Jing, Dillon Brooks and Jabari Smith Jr. hit four three-pointers in a row at critical moments to keep the Rockets in suspense, and the Rockets trailed the Pelicans 79-84 in the third quarter.
In the final quarter, the Rockets began to chase points frantically, Jalen Green, who performed poorly, was pressed on the bench, Tari Eason and Aaron Holiday scored consecutive points to complete the overtake, and the Pelicans suddenly fell into a 3-minute scoring drought, Shen Jing completely killed the game, and finally the Rockets narrowly beat the Pelicans by 2 points on the road!
In this game, the Pelicans failed to match the intensity of the Rockets at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the Pelicans scored double-doubles with five players, but there were as many as 16 turnovers and buried a good game.
After losing to the Rockets, the Pelicans' regular season record came to 17-13, ranking all the way down to seventh in the West
At the end of the game, Ingram scored 19 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks, but it was too late, CJ McCollum contributed 13 points, Varland recorded 10 points, 11 rebounds and a double-double, and Trey Murphy handed over 14 points, ushering in the return of Zion.
In this game, Zion started the game for 32 minutes, shooting 11 of 16 from the field, with a shooting rate of nearly 70%, and scored a team-high 28 points, with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block
In contrast, on the Rockets' side, VanVleet (3-of-11), Jalen Green (2-of-8) and Dillon Brooks (2-of-7) did not play well in this game.
Among them, Jalen Green only played 21 minutes in the whole game, and there were as many as 6 turnovers personally, and Jalen Green completely lost Udoka's trust in the final quarter!
Rationally speaking, the Rockets were able to beat the Pelicans in this game, and the outstanding performances of Jabari Smith Jr. and Shin Jing undoubtedly played a crucial role.
In this game, Jabari Smith Jr. was very efficient, shooting 10 of 14 from the field, with a shooting rate of more than 70%, 4 of 5 three-point shots, and 26 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, which affected the trend of the game at both offensive and defensive ends.
In the face of the Pelicans, Shen Jing ushered in a big explosion in this game, shooting 11 of 21 from the field, 14 of 17 free throws, and scored a game-high 37 points, as well as 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, which blew up the Pelicans' interior line.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that statistics show that Shen Jing scored 37 points in this battle, and Shen Jing set a new record for a single game score in his career.
It has to be said that the potential and talent that the 21-year-old Shin Kyung is showing so far is eye-catching, and Udoka has finally waited for the next Jokic!