Saturday night, the New Orleans Pelicans captured their 40 win of the season and inched themselves closer to attaining a top-six seed with four games remaining in the regular season. NOLA managed to scrape out a 122-114 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, and leading the charge for the club was none other than star forward Brandon Ingram.

Though perhaps known best for his scoring abilities, the 25-year-old was an all-around menace during the tightly contested affair, particularly on the less glamorous side of the floor. Following the outing, Ingram was asked by a reporter how he felt about his efforts on the defensive end during the game, especially being he was tasked with guarding Russell Westbrook during the second half.

In response, the wing opened up on his desire to help his team win in any way possible and discussed his approach to taking on the former league MVP.

“He hit a [3-pointers] in that third quarter or fourth quarter but I just wanted to slow him down a little bit. He was getting to the rim a lot in that first quarter. In that second quarter, he made a statement of really trying to get downhill so I was just trying to put some length on him and trying to discourage him from going to the rim,” Brandon Ingram said on guarding Westbrook.

Despite finishing the game with a solid 24 points, 9 assists, and  3 rebounds, with the shift to Brandon Ingram guarding him in the second half Russell Westbrook would finish off the final two periods of play with just 5 points and 4 assists while shooting a putrid 33.3% from the field.

Since returning to the rotation after nursing a nagging ankle back on March 14, the 2020 NBA All-Star has posted stellar per-game averages of 29.5 points, 8.0 assists, and 6.0 rebounds on 52.4% shooting from the floor and 43.3% shooting from distance.

Logging 38 minutes against the Clippers, Ingram finished the contest with a stupendous stat line of 36 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds while shooting 56.5% shooting from distance.