On April 20, Beijing time, today, the Suns continued to play the Pelicans at home. In the first quarter, the two teams fought hard to solve the score, and the Pelicans dominated the counter-attack, leading the opponent by 2 points at 30-28. Entering the second quarter, Booker turned on the scoring mode, and under his leadership, the Suns completed the counterattack, and the two teams fought 61-56 at halftime. Booker continued to play, but Ingram attacked in succession, and Nance also had a good performance, and the pelicans surpassed the opponent by 7 points 90-83 in the third quarter. In the final quarter, the Suns scored 5 consecutive points, the point difference was only 2 points, Booker retired in the third quarter, and the Suns announced that he would not return.
Since then, Alvarado has won in the mid-range, the Suns side, Johnson singles CJ is still in color, Alvarado feels hot, the outside line is raining three points, but Paul assists McGee also completed a dunk, Bridges also cut under the basket, the point difference is only 1 point. Soon, Johnson countered with a dunk, the Suns overtook, and the Pelicans were stopped. The timeout came back, Varan hooked a shot, Paul assisted Ayton with 2 points, Ingram caused a distraction from mid-range, and just two rounds later, CJ arced a three-pointer, and the point difference reached 4 points.
Back, Alvarado quickly attacked the bottom corner of the three-pointer again, Paul made a foul two free throws to stop the bleeding, CJ felt warm, also hit a long two-pointer, however, Bridges also hit 2 points, CJ did not hesitate to let go, dry three points and then scored, but Johnson immediately rained three points, the Pelicans played the feeling, Varan received the ball and shifted to the bottom corner of Ingram, the latter outside line again cut down three points, Paul forced the basket under the 2 points to stop the bleeding, but unfortunately the Suns did not return in time, Jones sneaked up on the basket, the point difference came to 7 points, the Suns were stopped.
In the decisive moment, Crowder scored 2 points from mid-range first, Ingram was bold, pulling out three points and then hitting, but Paul immediately stopped bleeding with three points, Ingram was unstoppable, turned over and splashed in the middle distance, and then he passed the ball to help Jones cause a foul. At the crucial moment, Crowder made a mistake, the Pelicans began to waste time, Ingram made two fouls, and in the end, the Pelicans narrowly beat the Suns 125-114, and the total score was 1-1. In this game, Booker's injury retirement became a turning point in the game, and throughout the game, Booker played 25 minutes, 12 of 19, and scored 31 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.
Paul was 5-of-16 and had 17 points and 14 assists; Bridges had 19 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists on 7-of-11 to become a fig leaf for the team, Ayton had only 10 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists on 4-of-6 shooting; Johnson had 11 points; McGee 10 points. On the Pelicans side, Ingram was a god, and the leader showed his true colors in the final quarter, he shot 37 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists in the 21 of 21; CJ 23 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists; Varan 10 points and 13 rebounds; Jones 14 points; Nance 13 points and 6 rebounds. In this game, Ingram also set two major records, the first record, these 37 points set a new career playoff scoring record, the second largest record, Ingram for the first time in the playoffs to cut two double-doubles, setting a career record.