The New Orleans Pelicans are 2-14 this season without Brandon Ingram in the lineup, and they will likely be without him for their next four games. Ingram has a mild right hamstring strain and will be reevaluated in 7-10 days, the team announced on Wednesday.
The Pelicans had won four straight games, including a 124-90 rout against the Utah Jazz, before an overtime loss in Denver on Sunday. Ingram scored 38 points on 12-for-24 shooting in that game, with nine assists, but has been out of the lineup since then. After a back-to-back in Memphis and at home against the Orlando Magic, they are 27-39, 10th in the West and 1.5 games behind the ninth-place Los Angeles Lakers.
Ingram's scoring numbers don't look all that different than they did in his first two years in New Orleans (and his 3-point percentage has dipped), but he is having his best all-around season as a pro. Without Zion Williamson, Ingram has had to assume more playmaking responsibility, and he's averaging a career-high 5.5 assists, a number that would be higher if the Pelicans had more shooting around him. New Orleans has a plus-2.8 point differential with Ingram on the court and a minus-9.9 point differential with him off the court, per Cleaning The Glass. With him, the Pelicans have had the equivalent of a top-10 offense; without him, they've had the equivalent a bottom-four offense.
"When [we] lose Brandon for significant time, we gotta find some scoring," coach Willie Green said Wednesday, following the 108-102 loss against Orlando. "And so we may have to just make some adjustments in general. I don't know if it's with the lineup or rotations, what that is at this moment, but it's something we gotta look at."
Before Ingram's injury, it looked like New Orleans had found a starting lineup that works. In 92 minutes over eight games, the fivesome of CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones, Ingram, Jaxson Hayes and Jonas Valanciunas has scored 123 points per 100 possessions and allowed 112.9 per 100. With Tony Snell in Ingram's place, the Pelicans were down by 20 points less than six minutes into the Grizzlies game and, against the Magic, entered the second quarter trailing 30-17.
If New Orleans wants more offense, it could replace Snell with Devonte' Graham, but that would weaken its defense and remove some firepower from an already-thin bench. Jose Alvarado is another option.
Green said that the Pelicans forced shots, rushed shots and need to play with more patience and trust. He also said that, before Friday's game against the Charlotte Hornets, they will have made some changes. That is the second game of a four-game homestand, which will continue against the Houston Rockets on Sunday and will conclude next Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns.
If you watch those games, you might get a glimpse of Williamson, who has returned to New Orleans. Williamson was not at the arena on Wednesday, but "he will be a part of what we're doing moving forward with practices and games in the future," Green said.
It remains unclear whether or not Williamson's foot has healed to the point where he will be able to play this season. He has been cleared to gradually return to basketball activities.
Despite that uncertainty and the fact that the Pelicans might continue to slide without Ingram, they aren't in immediate danger of losing their spot in the play-in. The 11th-place Portland Trail Blazers are just 1.5 games back, but they've lost six straight games and the franchise isn't particularly interested in short-term winning. The 12th-place San Antonio Spurs have lost five of their last six games and the 13th-place Sacramento Kings have lost eight of 10 (and are five games behind New Orleans in the loss column).
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