His menacing fourth quarter in Game 1 proves any assumed limit on his potential is too low.
Pressure is a funny thing. Its presence and power is based completely on expectations, rewards and consequences. There was immense pressure on Pelicans GM Dell Demps and coach Monty Williams this season. Reports suggest that without a playoff berth, they'd be looking for new jobs. The reason: Anthony Davis is in his third year in the league and had not sniffed the postseason despite showing actualized potential.
The specter of losing Davis like Cleveland lost LeBron James or like Minnesota lost Kevin Love had to weigh on the Pelicans' braintrust, leading to the ultimatum for Demps and Williams. Having a transformative star, one who could permanently link the heart of New Orleans to your brand and create new generations of customers while fitting into the city lore? That's pressure. Pressure begets pressure. You trade all of your picks for role players and you do everything you can to win as many games as it takes. And sometimes it works out, as it did for Demps and Williams.
And because it worked out for Demps and Williams, there is now no pressure on the Pelicans. The goal for this season has been met. Everything else is frosting on the cupcake. Facing an impossibly good team, playing in the most hostile gym the NBA can offer, they're slotted in as a sacrificial lamb, a footnote in a more urgent legend being written. That's what the Pelicans are supposed to be right now because their work is done. They have done their job.
Anthony Davis is just so good that just showing up is never going to be enough.
It really did look like the Pelicans would hop on the pyre in deference to Golden State for most of Saturday's Game 1. The Warriors flummoxed Davis by defending him with Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green -- perhaps the best defensive frontcourt in the West -- and doubling off of shooters when he put the rock on the floor.
Golden State was content to let other Pelicans beat them, because frankly the other Pelicans cannot beat them. Norris Cole had one nice quarter, but Tyreke Evans suffered a knee injury that seems serious and missed most of the game. Neither Eric Gordon (5-14) nor Ryan Anderson (1-6) shot particularly well against good Warriors defenders. Jrue Holiday is too rusty to assert himself, and Quincy Pondexter can't carry much of a load. Davis was furthermore saddled with foul trouble, leaving New Orleans without hope.
Until Fourth Quarter Anthony Davis showed up.
During the regular season, Davis averaged 6.4 points in fourth quarters, fifth-highest in the NBA. More impressively, he shot 58 percent from the floor per NBA.com's stats page. He went a little better on Saturday: Twenty points on 7-10 shooting. The rest of the Pelicans went 5-15 for 13 points in the quarter. Davis was the sole reason New Orleans fought back into the game. He was the only thing separating the Pels from ignominy.
There is literally no pressure on Davis to prove his chops, not after the season he had and the coup de grace he delivered in the Pelicans' clinching victory Wednesday against the Spurs. Getting to this point was enough to cement Davis' status as the brightest young star in the NBA galaxy. Now he's just whetting our appetite for what is possible. And what is possible is anything and everything.
Consider his accomplishment on Sunday, even in a loss. Few teams have been able to stop the Warriors this season, and only two inside Oracle Arena. Yet he single-handedly made that megalith sweat. He forced Stephen Curry to get off the bench. He shushed the loudest crowd in the nation. He shut up Green. (If only for a moment.) He dared step up to the greatest showmen in the NBA right now, and he had the most thrilling highlight.
Many of us lamented the loss of a maniacal Russell Westbrook raging against the Warriors and the world in a futile first-round flame war. What we got instead is a maniacal Anthony Davis menacing the best team on the planet. There are still no expectations for what the Pelicans might do in this series, and there can be no expectations for what Davis might yet become, for the human brain is incapable of grasping possibilities so vast.
But if all of this is just frosting on the success of New Orleans' season, man is it delicious.
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