New Orleans Pelicans: Brandon Ingram’s 5 best games of the season

3. Dropping 40 points in Brooklyn (11/04/19)

Ingram had gotten off to a fast start through the season’s first six games, averaging 23.5 points per game on 51.5 percent shooting.

The numbers were encouraging but there was no way to tell if they’d stick. The season wasn’t even two weeks old and plenty of players have fallen back down to earth after hitting the ground running or riding an early hot hand.

Heading into a game against the Brooklyn Nets, it wasn’t a guarantee Ingram would even suit up after he had left the previous game against the Oklahoma City Thunder following a hit to the head after just 13 minutes of action.

Ingram would play in Barclays and produce some of his best numbers to date with a then-career-high of 40 points on 17-of-24 shooting with five assists, five rebounds and two steals in a 135-125 defeat.

He would post a new career-high several months later and produced other stellar outings prior — more on those soon — but this is the one that first flooded social media channels with a tremendous show on the Big Apple stage.

One could argue it introduced a level of play that had rarely been seen by the former No. 2 pick. He hasn’t looked back since.