The New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 122-114 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday, securing their 40th win of the season and rising to the seventh in the Western Conference.

All of the Pelicans' five starters scored double-digit points, led by 36 from Brandon Ingram. He didn't take any attempt from downtown, but made nine of his 15 jumpers within the 3-point line and 10 of the 11 free throws he earned. He had 21 points in the second half, including going 4-for-4 from the field in the fourth quarter.

The Clippers had to have two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard guard Ingram from the second half, not to mention that another defender often joined Leonard to trap Ingram in the fourth quarter. Nonetheless, they still couldn't stop Ingram from dominating the floor as he is so skillful in exploiting teammates' screens to create shooting space as well as his own size and vision to find open teammates. Ingram delivered eight assists in Saturday's game with only one turnover.

Other Pelicans also made key contributions to the team's victory on Saturday. Jonas Valanciunas got a double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds, including seven on the offensive glass. Trey Murphy and Hebert Jones joined hands to earn 18 free throws and made 16 of them. Their efforts, as well as Ingram's, enabled the Pelicans to lead 35-23 over the Clippers.

The Clippers dropped to sixth in the West after Saturday's loss and are only half a game above the Pelicans with three games to go – the Pelicans have four more games to play. Kawhi Leonard, who sat out the second half of Friday's game against the Memphis Grizzlies, turned on full firepower to score 40 points, including 14 in both of the third and fourth quarters.

Nonetheless, the rest of the Clippers didn't provide as much support to Leonard as their Pelicans counterpart gave Ingram. Russell Westbrook was the only one able to ease the load off Leonard's shoulders as he shot surprisingly well 9-for-18 from the field, including draining three triples.

By contrast, both Ivica Zubac and Mason Plumlee were too busy getting bullied by Valanciunas, having no extra strength to invest in offense. The two combined got only 21 points and 11 rebounds and were eclipsed by the solo performance of Valanciunas. Norman Powell, who was added to the starting lineup to fill in Paul George's absence, missed all four 3-pointers of his to score only 12 points while committing six turnovers.

Have Mavericks given up on this season?

The Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks 122-114 at Miami-Dade Arena in Miami, Florida, on Saturday, ending their three-game losing streak.

The Heat rested their second-in-command Bam Adebayo and started Cody Zeller, who was waived twice last year and only signed with the Heat in late February. To everyone's surprise, Zeller went 9-for-13 from the field to score 20 points and eight rebounds for the Heat. He surely worked hard to make such a performance, but the Mavericks' disappointing defense – if there was any at all – was why Zeller could get these numbers.

The Heat made 10 of their 15 2-point field goals (FGs) to score 44 points in the first quarter. Sixteen of them came from Jimmy Butler, who went 12-for-16 from the field during the whole game to drop 35 points and 12 assists for the Heat. Though the final result was only a seven-point win for his team, the competition was a foregone conclusion after the first half.

Though the Mavericks are in a very unfavorable situation in the play-in tournament qualification race, they are far from hopeless because they were only half a game behind the 10th-ranking Oklahoma City Thunder before Saturday's game. With the league's top offensive power from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks had every reason to spare no effort in battling for a postseason berth.

Instead, most of the Mavericks didn't even want to raise their hands in defensive possessions. Doncic, who dropped 42 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists on Saturday night, was spotted walking back to their half court slowly with his hands on his hips. Nobody is asking Doncic to be an All-Defensive Teams member, but at least he should show some attitude as the team leader.