Once upon a time when the New Orleans Pelicans looked to be trending in the right direction, Willie Green delivered a fiery speech in Los Angeles that defined his first season as a head coach.

His Pelicans were buried in a 10-point hole heading into the fourth quarter of a win-or-go-home play-in game against the Clippers that night in the 2021-22 season.

“Get your freaking heads up,” Green told his team. “This is what we live for. This is what we work hard for. OK, we ain’t giving it up. We are not freaking giving this up. You gotta freaking fight. You gotta fight.”

The Pels fought back and won that night.

More times than not since then, that fight the Pelicans put on display in that game 3½ years ago has been missing.

You’ll see glimpses of the fight from time to time, like in Frida

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