When the LA Clippers visited the Toronto Raptors in the middle of January, they were running on fumes. It was their 12th straight game with no more than one day of rest. Not helping matters was star small forward Kawhi Leonard being downgraded to out for that afternoon game.Another issue was the Clippers were preparing to play Brandon Ingram, then the Raptors’ new small forward, who gave the LA consistent levels of belt throughout his stint with the New Orleans Pelicans. Entering January’s game, Ingram’s Pelicans had won 11 of 13 games against the Clippers and coach Tyronn Lue, including the 2022 Western Conference 8-9 Play-In Tournament game that allowed the 36-win Pelicans to clinch a playoff spot over the 42-win Clippers.In those 13 Pelicans-Clippers matchups, Ingram averaged 22.4 points on 51.4 percent shooting and led New Orleans to eight double-digit wins. Although none of Ingram’s Pelicans squads finished with a better record than Lue’s Clippers, that didn’t matter when Ingram saw LA.
After we got Clippers personnel updates out of the way, asked Tyronn Lue about Brandon Ingram, who won 11 of his last 13 games vs Clippers as a member of the Pelicans and now gets to face them as a Raptor for the first time pic.twitter.com/QQhzpJKqWQ
