New Orleans Pelicans Awards: Warriors shoot the lights out
By Nathan Heck
The New Orleans Pelicans fought valiantly in the first half, but the Golden State Warriors overwhelmed them in the second half.
The New Orleans Pelicans played extremely well for half of a game of basketball. Unfortunately, it takes two halves to make a whole, and the Warriors absolutely crushed the Pelicans in the second half. The effort was clearly there, but the Warriors were simply much more talented than the shorthanded New Orleans Pelicans. Toney Douglas, Alonzo Gee and Dante Cunningham seemed to be everywhere on the defensive end, but it was not enough to slow down the high-powered Warriors.
Anthony Davis started at center in place of Omer Asik, who has barely seen the floor since returning from his ankle injury. In his limited time on the floor recently, Omer Asik has struggled mightily by committing many of the same errors fans harped on earlier in the season. With the season circling the drain, it will be interesting to see if Anthony Davis gets more minutes at the center position as the coaching staff experiments with the roster.
MVP: Toney Douglas
Toney Douglas played well above his pay-grade in Oakland, especially in the first half. He was unable to score efficiently, but he made it a point to make life difficult for the Warriors by hustling to cut off passing lanes and pestering ball handlers with swipes at the ball. On top of his scrappiness on the defensive end, Douglas made quite a few beautiful passes to set his teammates up for easy looks in the corner and at the basket. Unfortunately for the Pelicans, those easy looks rarely fell, but Toney Douglas was very effective.
LVP: Anthony Davis
Sure, he led the team in scoring and rebounding, but he was terribly inefficient and posted the worst plus/minus rating on the entire roster. The Warriors regularly bullied him, and he was blocked far too often. The Pelicans needed him to be a superstar to stand a chance in this game, not an inefficient volume scorer. Pinning this loss on Davis is unfair, but he Pelicans needed more from him, and he was unable to provide it.
X-Factor: Alonzo Gee
Alonzo Gee gets the nod over the other hardworking wing, Dante Cunningham, because Gee actually made a couple of baskets. Much like Toney Douglas, Alonzo Gee was everywhere on the defensive end, and he was fairly effective in his ability to limit Steph Curry in the first half. Playing the passing lanes, Gee led the team in steals, and this led to some easy baskets for the Pelicans. He kept multiple possessions alive by keeping his head up and grabbing “hustle” offensive rebounds, including one that came off a botched fast-break by Anthony Davis.
Turning point: Run by the Warriors to end the second quarter
It wasn’t apparent at the time, but the run the Warriors went on to close out the second quarter was the punch that rocked the Pelicans before they were ultimately knocked out in the third quarter. After playing an extremely competitive game up to that point, the Pelicans surrendered a run that sent them into the locker room down by nine. After halftime, the Warriors clamped down on the Pelicans’ offense and put the pedal to the floor on the other end. The lead was blown wide open in no time, and the run at the end of the second quarter got it all started.
Defining moment: Andrew Bogut three pointer
Yeah, this actually happened. The Pelicans played some of the best defense fans have seen all season, and it just didn’t seem to matter. Every player for the Warriors was able to make shots that had no business going in all night. Andrew Bogut had, hysterically, air-balled a free throw just minutes earlier, and he made this? Sure, whatever.
That was…odd.
Honestly, no one expected the Pelicans to be even remotely competitive, and the fact the team played fairly well for an entire half against the best team in the NBA is encouraging. The second half was more of what everyone expected, and it is unclear if the Warriors were just coasting in the first two quarters or if the Pelicans really were putting up a fight.