The New Orleans Pelicans still had a salty taste in their mouths after getting pounded in the NBA In-Season Tournament. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers would mop them to eventually win the whole thing. A certain date was circled in the calendar after this loss and it surely paid off. Zion Williamson outlined how his teammates like Brandon Ingram were impacted by this loss which led to a great revenge win, via Jim Eichenhofer of The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast.

“It was kind of a blessing in disguise. I think it definitely brought us closer as a team, and closer with the staff… I feel like we've been playing great since then. Still have some things to figure out, but so does every team,” was how Zion Williamson and the Pelicans absorbed the NBA In-Season Tournament loss.

Now, they had their shot to pummel the Lakers back and delivered. Williamson led the scoring barrage with 26 points. Brandon Ingram would also drop the same scoring numbers. The rest of the Pelicans? Well, all of them were also eager to deliver a gut-wrenching New Year's Eve gift to LeBron James' squad. Six players stepped up and notched double-digit numbers. Jose Alvarado and Naji Marshall just fell short of making the list count to eight.

Williamson knew that all of this was coming, “In the first game, they brought the game to us. Our whole thing was we've got to bring the game to them. We did a good job with that.”

This Pelicans squad is determined to compete and become title contenders. There is no better way to do it by beating out the Conference runner-ups from last year through a bounce-back performance.