It's difficult to believe but it's already been a year since Matt Ryan, then with the Los Angeles Lakers, snatched the New Orleans Pelicans' souls with a clutch, fallaway, game-tying three to send the game to overtime at the buzzer. But Larry Nance Jr., who's now teammates with Ryan, did not forget at all about the 26-year old's dagger-shot in 2022. In fact, time has already healed that wound that Nance can now joke about that shot in the aftermath of their 125-116 win over the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.

Nance, posting his regular recap following every Pelicans game on his official Twitter (X) account, used the picture of Ryan shooting the game-tying triple in a Lakers uniform to convey that the 26-year old sharpshooter had a strong outing against the Pistons. However, Nance, being the comedian that he is, posted a poorly-photoshopped version of the image, hastily throwing over a Pelicans uniform over Ryan while putting a Pistons uniform over Trey Murphy III.

During his postgame presser, Matt Ryan made sure that his Pelicans teammate's post did not go unnoticed, beaming in joy as they took care of the Pistons to move to 4-1 on the season.

“Did you see Larry's tweet? Larry just told me in the locker room that he does a little something on Twitter after every game and he goes, ‘Matt, you got to see this.' And he showed me, and I started laughing. I didn't know it was a year ago to this day, though. That's pretty cool,” Ryan said, per the official Pelicans Twitter (X) account.

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Reggie Miller saying "Shai scorchin' the Pels!" with Shai shooting over Herb Jones

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Graphic: David Griffin and Trajan Langdon saying "We're waiting" while Brandon Ingram looks dejected (head down) in the background. Maybe add 0-2 to show Pelicans are down in the series.

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Matt Ryan was unable to stick with the Lakers last season despite those heroics, spending the majority of last year with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Pelicans then picked him up this offseason, and he has delivered on more than one occasion. Starting for the Pelicans with both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram out, Ryan scored 20 points on 7-10 shooting from the field and 6-8 from deep, proving his worth to the team as a quality floor-spacer especially with Trey Murphy still out due to injury.

Only on a two-way deal, perhaps it's only a matter of time before the Pelicans make room for Ryan on the roster on a more permanent basis.