A patented coach Willie Green yell echoed throughout Cypto.com arena Friday night. He first did it after defeating the Lakers, Spurs, and last night as the Pelican took down the Clippers.
However, all the buzz had to do with Coach Green’s passionate timeout speech, imploring his team not to give up and fight.
The Pelicans found themselves down 10 points heading into the 4th quarter after being outscored 38-18 in the 3rd. The Clippers’ crowd was in a frenzy, and momentum had swung entirely in the Clippers’ favor. Coach Green’s battle cry and adjustments spurned the Pelicans on to take a 105-101 victory that propelled the Pelicans into the playoffs.
The players after the game commented on a change they saw in coach Green. “It was a different side of Willie that I haven’t seen, in all honesty. He got really fired up,” Trey Murphy III said. “Most of the time he’s very even-keeled, but he got really fired up and lit into us. I think that sparked us in that fourth quarter. At the end of the day, we didn’t want our season to be over. We wanted to keep playing, and he definitely spearheaded that.”
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That fight and resolve can carry a team a long way. It has already brought this team to this point after a 1-12 season’s start, to now the playoffs. The Pelicans became only the 4th team in NBA history to do so. It carried them to this place without the services of arguably their best player in Zion, Williamson, who has yet to play this season as he recovers from offseason foot surgery. It carried them past the National media naysayers who suggested this isn’t a basketball town or the team doesn’t deserve stars here.
The team embodies the underdog, can’t quit attitude the same as the city it plays in. New Orleans always seems like it’s behind the 8-ball in ways. Whether due to politics, economics, or natural disasters, the city has had to fight its way back to respectability. It has never given. The Pelicans have not either.
Whether this carries them to an improbable upset of Phoenix remains to be seen. What we do know is this team will not give up. It will fight. It will stand. Like New Orleans, it will rise again.
