ON THE FINAL night of the All-Star break, New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum, forward Brandon Ingram and coach Willie Green went out for a small, private dinner at FLINT by Baltaire in Phoenix.
The Pelicans had gone 1-4 since the Feb. 8 trade that sent Josh Hart, Tomas Satoransky, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Didi Louzada to the Portland Trail Blazers for McCollum, Larry Nance Jr. and Tony Snell. At 23-36, they had just a 10% chance to reach the playoffs, according to ESPN's BPI projections.