With the NBA season on hold indefinitely, we have taken the opportunity to rank and match-up Lonzo Ball’s greatest performance in a March Madness bracket format.
Round 1, Game 1 (note: the poll was incorrectly embedded in Tuesday’s piece and is now open)
Lonzo Ball has had a breakout season in New Orleans and has already added to his profile of best games ever multiple times over during the 2019-20 campaign. In this match-up, two of those games square off with one another.
No. 2 seed – Pelicans vs. Houston, Dec. 29, 2019
The first breakout performance of Ball’s season in New Orleans came just before the new year.
Entering the game, the Pelicans had started to turn things around in the season after an abysmal stretch saw them lose 13 games between late November and early December. But four wins in five games coming into the contest had seen the ball start rolling in the right direction.
Ball, though, had not put up the statistical production equivalent to the team’s recent run of success. That is until this game where, against a Houston side missing much of its star power, Ball notched his first triple-double of the season to go along with a career-high seven three-pointers.
No. 7 seed – Pelicans at Dallas, March 4, 2020
Three times this season, Ball has connected on seven three-pointers to tie his career-high. The Houston contest was the first occurrence while the Dallas game was the most recent.
Heading into Dallas, Ball was playing the best basketball of his professional career. While the Pelicans were coming off a loss, Ball more than did his part the night prior against Minnesota with some huge shots.
Against the Mavericks, he followed it up with his best two-game stretch of his career and the first time he scored at least 25 points in back-to-back games.
