Warriors survive test they needed as Pelicans squander golden opportunity
OAKLAND — Anthony Davis and Norris Cole sat at the losing podium at Oracle Arena late Monday night and spent approximately 12 minutes speaking all kinds of basketball truths.
For the second consecutive game in this first-round playoff series against the vaunted Golden State Warriors, their New Orleans Pelicans did a quality job of slowing down the league's top-ranked offense.
There were all sorts of subplots to be celebrated: Tyreke Evans showing admirable grit in playing through the pain of his left knee injury — "He's a warrior," Davis said; the Pelicans' early-and-often effectiveness keeping the league's loudest venue from breaking any decibel records, this after coach Monty Williams' curious decision to stoke those fires with his comments about Warriors fans breaking nonexistent noise rules; Davis and Eric Gordon playing big-time basketball for most of the evening, leading this upstart young bunch to the kind of performance that made it clear they can compete with this celebrated Warriors group.
But the only truth that matters now that their 97-87 loss is in the books is that the Pelicans are down 2-0, and history tells us that this unwelcome predicament is the NBA equivalent of being on death's door. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the team that starts a best-of-seven series with a 2-0 lead has won 245 out of 261 times.
This was the Pelicans' puncher's chance, and they swung and missed.
Beating the Warriors in this deafening place where they won 39 of 41 games during the regular season would have put the Pelicans in the proverbial driver's seat. All the out-of-character trends that the Warriors have developed through two games would have been legitimate causes for concern among the blue-and-gold faithful, from the fact that the league's sharpest-shooting team hasn't been torching nylon like we're accustomed to seeing, to the reality that Davis (26 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks) looks more dynamic and dangerous in this setting with every postseason game logged.
Instead, with Game 3 coming on Thursday in New Orleans, the Warriors not only got another win but left the Oracle office with the silver lining to boot: this was the kind of test they've been waiting for.
Game 1 was a test in name alone, but the Pelicans' late push after trailing by 25 points was as much about the clock not ticking away quickly enough as it was New Orleans as true challenger. But this was different: an 11-point Pelicans lead in the second quarter, the 71-71 tie entering the fourth, only to be followed by a flat fourth quarter in which they hit just 4-of-16 shots and watched the Warriors' Klay Thompson turn it on in the most timely of ways (6-of-8 shooting for 14 points in the final quarter).
As dominant as the Warriors were in their historic campaign, they were just 6-12 in games in which they entered the fourth quarter trailing. They had a knack for pulling away in the rare tight game, though, as they were undefeated the four times this year in which they went into the final period tied. They weren't on the ropes in this one, but — as Warriors forward Draymond Green had no problem admitting — these Pelicans packed a punch.
But wobbly though these Warriors were, they withstood in the kind of way that should serve them well going forward. As the Pelicans have scouted these Warriors before and during the series, the most disconcerting lesson learned is that there's not a blueprint to taking them down. They can win in a frightening variety of ways: victory by long-range attack, or if a team like New Orleans is capable of slowing them on that front, attacking the rim when their three-point gunners are chased off the line; grinding it out with the defense that was ranked first in the NBA this season. It's that chameleon quality that likely means this series will be over sooner rather than later.
"We know the style we can play, and we know (that) everybody else's expectation and belief about us is not ours, so we don't go out trying to prove that if we ain't hitting shots we can win dirty," said Green, who was an astounding plus-25 in the plus-minus category and finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals.
"We already know that. If the game is slowed down, we already know we know how to execute. We know we can defend. So it's not some extra satisfaction like, 'Yeah we won it this way.' We won a basketball game. That's the most important thing to us, just winning a basketball game however it needs to be done."
And yet again, getting it done had everything to do with their defensive efforts against Davis. He missed 13 of his 22 shots, with Green taking the challenge head on, and everyone from Warriors center Andrew Bogut to forward Harrison Barnes chipping in. The Pelicans — who played without point guard Jrue Holiday (right leg) — shot just 37.8% overall.
"It was fantastic," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of the overall defensive work. "I mean, the energy that we were able to expend and limit what they could do. You know, they're a handful. We know that. Between Davis and their three‑point shooters and the penetration from Evans, you've got to cover a lot of floor and try to contain Davis with other people because he's too good to guard one‑on‑one.
"So it's a lot to ask, but we feel like that's the identity of our team is our defense and our versatility at that end. I thought Draymond was just fantastic. Bogut (was) fantastic, and the defense carried the day."
As for the Pelicans, their days are numbered.
Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.
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