BY CHRISTIAN CLARK | Staff writer If you'd written off the Pelicans after the first month of the season, well, I can't blame you. The star who said he'd be back for the regular-season opener wasn't, and without him, the team went into free fall. New Orleans lost 16 of its first 19 games. It sat at the bottom of a more-mediocre-than-usual Western Conference. Since then, however, the Pelicans have rallied. They have gone 9-5 over a 14-game stretch. All of this has come without Zion Williamson, who is likely still months away from returning. How have the Pelicans inched back toward respectability? Brandon Ingram has been exceptional. Josh Hart looks like an elite glue guy. Jonas Valanciunas has continued to be steady. And as Devonte' Graham explained after Thursday's win, the team's head coach, Willie Green, didn't allow anyone to hang their heads. “The biggest thing is confidence throughout the team," Graham said. "That has a lot to do with Coach Green. Just not getting down on guys. A lot of guys with that 1-9 start would’ve started panicking and going left. They could have easily made the team go left and stop trusting each other. He just kept building us up and kept believing and coming in every day with the gym popping, the music playing. He just kept saying, 'It’s going to turn.'" It has turned. The Pelicans have won four consecutive games. They are two games back in the loss column of 10th place, where they need to finish to qualify for the play-in tournament. Over the past three years, there has been so much head coaching churn in New Orleans. Maybe, just maybe management finally found the right guy. Green was able to maintain player buy-in during that difficult start — no easy feat. -- Christian | 