The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the smallest markets in the NBA. The city of NOLA is a strong football city from what I've heard, so the Saints have the big athletic stranglehold over the town's sports enthusiasts. You'd think that with a player as talented as Anthony Davis he'd draw huge crowds and be a household name on the level of LeBron and Steph Curry, but he's not. Apparently, a big reason that Davis left his previous agent and joined LeBron's agency(Klutch Sports) was that his representatives felt like he was an incredible talent smack dab in the middle of his prime that the general public had no clue existed. Mabe things will change under his time with Klutch.
When the Pelicans achieve great things I feel like it goes under the radar. Tonight's convincing 126-110 victory against arguably the top team in the Eastern Conference is quite a big deal! And they even did it without Nikola Mirotic taking the floor(injury). They waltzed onto Toronto's home floor and absolutely dominated Kawhi and his fellow dinosaurs, especially in the painted area (72 pts in the paint vs. 42). Hats off to Anthony Davis(25 points, 20 rebs, 6 assists, 2 blocks, 11/20 FG), Jrue Holiday (29 points, 3 rebs, 14 assists, 1 steal, 12/19 FG), and E'Twaun Moore(30 points, 2 rebs, 3 assists, 1 steal, 13/18 FG) for incredible nights on offense. Check out the quarter-by-quarter recap below!
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Game Recap
First Quarter
Toronto's offense was humming and the defense held tight in the opening minutes of the contest. Pascal Siakam was out here getting his shots up early while Kawhi and Lowry opted to facilitate with a dash of bucket-making. Kawhi's shot bricked on the back rim a bunch of times which showed that he still didn't have his feel for tonight despite a couple early makes.
The Pelicans ran their offense through their main man AD while attacking the paint with their role-players. E'Twaun Moore made his presence known as New Orleans leading scorer with 12 first quarter points. Whatever the Raptors tried throwing at Anthony Davis...it just wasn't working. Davis was getting anything he wanted off Toronto's interior. He didn't explode quite yet but he and Moore's solid play led the Pels to a two-point advantage after one quarter of play 31-29.
Second Quarter
Anthony Davis took a rest in the second which set Julius Randle to lead the action down low. The Pelicans were chugging along as they jumped out to a five point advantage 44-39 with a little over six minutes to play in the half. Meanwhile, The Raptors went cold from the field, shooting around 36% as a team. Davis and Kawhi checked back into the game and the flow remained the same. Pelicans kept a 2-4 point edge while the Raps sank a steady stream of three's and mid-rangers to keep it close.
In terms of sonics, it was a relatively quiet game. I didn't hear a lot of vocal defensive communication from either side that you'd usually hear through the TV. Anthony Davis strikes me as a quiet leader, so his team must follow suit in that aspect. On the other hand,, Kawhi is the epitome of the "strong but silent" type. Those two focal points were the recipe for a silent game on each side of the floor.
The Pelicans walked into the locker room with a five-point advantage after two quarters of play 66-61. Toronto should've been the ones ahead but their shooting was just horrendous. They ended the quarter nailing 39.6% of their shots while New Orleans shot at a 58% clip. Over half of the Pelicans points were in the paint(38).
Third Quarter
The Raptors hit a couple threes to try getting back into their shooting rhythm. Pascal Siakam also started guarding Anthony Davis in one-on-one situations and he wasn't doing half bad. The young bull managed to get a decent block on The Brow! Siakam also nailed a three to tie the game up at 70-all. But Jrue Holiday and Julius Randle took the initiative on offense, attacking the paint to lead the Pels on a 9-0 run with seven minutes to play, 79-70 Pelicans.
Kyle Lowry was ineffective for the Raps in the scoring column. four minutes left in the third quarter and he only had two points to his name. Serge Ibaka (17), Pascal Siakam(18), and Kawhi (18) carried the load in the midst of this Toronto funk. The Pelicans were up by 11, 88-77, but Toronto's defense was contesting their oppoents shots well. That made the score feel closer than it was. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis (17 pts, 15 rebs, 2 blocks) was headed for another huge night on the stat sheet as the Pelicans kept the Raps at a stiff-arms distance to end the third up 94-83.
Fourth Quarter
But the Raps came out FIRING to start the fourth quarter and narrow it to six on a 7-2 run. Fred Van Vleet was making it happen with dish after dish, and OG Anunoby was aggressive in getting to the line. The Pelicans needed a timeout to think things over. After that break in the action, NO immediately scored eight straight to push their lead to fourteen 106-92!
Eight minutes left to go in the fourth and we felt like we were witnessing a battle. The Raptors responded to the Pelican's run with a little seven-point swing spurred by Siakam & bAnunoby to cut that lead down to single digits. But Anthony Davis made some beautiful cuts to cop a couple baskets close to the hoop which pushed them back ahead. The Pels were ahead by seventeen big ones with under four minutes to play 118-101. Toronto needed a miracle to tie this thing up.
For a brief moment, the Raptors seemed to get everything to break their way. Kyle Lowry and OG Anunoby both made driving layups to get some quick points on the board, with Anunoby even copping a monster and-1 in transition off Anthony Davis. We just crossed the three-minute mark and a run felt like it was mathematically conceivable....but then Jrue Holiday made a huge three followed by baskets from Moore and Davis. Those shots effectively put this one out of reach. Pelicans secured the big W 126-110 on Toronto's home floor!
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Takeaways
Big Big Big win for the New Orleans Pelicans who started off the year red-hot but have cooled off considerably. Jrue Holiday obviously did an incredible job getting buckets, but the strong defensive point guard also held Kyle Lowry to four points! He was arguably their best player tonight even with the monster line from Anthony Davis. What great games from him and E'Twaun Moore to give Toronto their first loss at home.
Prior to this game, the Raps were on a six-game winning streak which is their second such instance of this young season. I thought Toronto was coming off a back-to-back based off of their mediocre play, but they actually just played on Saturday meaning they had one full day of rest. Toronto was just having a bad shooting night while falling victim to lapses in defensive execution.
Pascal Siakam(22 pts, 3 rebs, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 blocks), Serge Ibaka(19 points, 14 rebs, 2 assists), and Kawhi Leonard(20 points, 6 rebs, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block) all had decent games, but duds like the one Kyle Lowry threw up (4 points, 1-9 shooting) proved to be their downfall tonight. The crappy defense from their guards Lowry and Danny Green also allowed Holiday and Moore to go off, which I think was the major factor in the Pelicans triumph in Canada. Sometimes you have bad defense, but sometimes the enemy just has great offense. Both ideas have some truth in this context.
Check out the highlights to the match below!
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