NEW ORLEANS (AP) — After a vintage performance, New Orleans Pelicans center DeAndre Jordan was looking forward to getting home and enjoying a glass of wine.
“I’ll probably have some Bordeaux tonight,” Jordan said after grabbing 15 rebounds and blocking four shots in a 126-111 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.
It would have been easy for the casual basketball fan to forget about the 37-year-old Jordan, who has spent nearly all of his 18th NBA season on the bench.
Brought in to serve as a mentor for the Pelicans’ younger interior players — including first-round draft choice Derik Queen — Jordan had appeared in just two games this season and had not played since Oct. 29.
But Pelicans coach James Borrego, disgusted by his team’s porous defense in a lopsided loss to Milwaukee on Friday night, decided it was time to give Jordan his 793rd career start.
“My gut was saying to make this move,” said Borrego, who has gone 14-32 with New Orleans (16-42) since taking over after Willie Green was fired 12 games into the season.
“When he got to the arena, I had a quick conversation with him,” Borrego said. “He was ready to go and we made the move.”
Jordan played so well, Borrego kept him on the court for nearly 32 minutes.
“His impact defensively for us tonight was massive,” Borrego said. “To be a good defensive ball club in this league, you’ve got to have some type of physicality, rim protection, deterrence, a presence in the middle — and he provided that.
“He was phenomenal defensively in so many ways,” Borrego continued. “Even shots he didn’t block, they weren’t sure that they wanted to get in there.”
Jordan’s blocks ranged from him swatting away Kellly Oubre Jr.’s driving floater to his leaping deflection of VJ Edgecombe’s 3-point attempt. He also scored six points, highlighted by an alley-oop dunk of a feed from Herb Jones.
“Any time you can go out a compete in this league, it’s a gift, man,” Jordan said. “It was cool to be able to go out there and play tonight.”
Jordan, who was an All-Star in 2017 with the Los Angeles Clippers, said he stayed ready this season by participating in regular five-on-five scrimmages with other players who’d logged relatively few minutes. His minimal playing time wasn’t surprising or discouraging to him, he said, because he understood the Pelicans signed him to help develop younger interior players such as Queen, Yves Missi, Karlo Matkovic and Zion Williamson.
“That’s a part of the job,” Jordan said. “They’ve got bigs that are part of their future. So, coming in, I knew it was going to be: Play some nights, maybe not play some nights, be a mentor. But when my number is called, I’ve got to be ready.”
Jordan grinned and said, “I’ve got fresh legs,” when asked if he could envision playing regularly during New Orleans’ 24 remaining regular-season games.
“It’s not about me or one guy,” Jordan said. “But tonight I got the opportunity to play and I took advantage of it.”
Jordan, Borrego said, deserved the type of game he had in front of an appreciative home crowd.
“He deserves all that comes with tonight,” Borrego said. “He’s elevated our program in so many ways that will never be discussed anywhere but in our locker room.”
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