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OAKLAND – After 20 years of excellence, the Rockets have begun to break, the Thunder and Spurs have been eliminated, and the Warriors, including one of them, is going to Oracle Arena tonight.
The pelicans in New Orleans seem ready to continue their ceiling, which is at its highest when Anthony Davis is in good health and has everyone in his path.
After an absence of two games, Davis is back in training, which adds a layer of intrigue to this Warriors-Pelicans match.
"The Pelicans are one of the best teams in the West," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. "We saw them in the playoffs last year. Anthony Davis is spectacular. "
New Orleans, along with Utah and Denver, is one of three teams in the Western Conference going from the so-called playoffs to a team that the elite would avoid just as quickly.
The Warriors saw the Jazz and escaped Salt Lake City with the narrowest victory. They saw the Nuggets in Denver and left with their only loss this season.
It was their experience at Rocky Mountain that seemed to awaken the Warriors. Stephen Curry shot 10 of 23 (43.5%) and Kevin Durant 7 of 19 (36.8) in this game, but they have since reached another level.
Curry Fry Defenders, During Torture and Now, Klay Thompson jumps to crush the hopes of those who would like to think that containing Curry and Durant – good luck with that – is the surest way to compete with the champions.
That's what a challenge can do for a team that plays its best ball when it is threatened.
The pelicans (4-2) were doing the business. They are second (behind the Warriors) in scoring, fifth for percentage scoring and eighth with an accuracy of 3 points. They were also unbeaten before Davis missed the last two games due to an elbow injury.
"He continued to improve every year," said Draymond Green about Davis. "It's gone from a guy who will earn you 20 points without a game being called to become a guy that all the offense goes through."
It's not just Davis who makes pelicans so great.
After four consecutive seasons in which he missed between 15 and 48 games, goalkeeper Jrue holiday was in good health last season and during a first round sweep of Portland, he reminded all of his gifts.
With DeMarcus Cousins, who rode MVP numbers in New Orleans last season, now with the Warriors, the Pelicans signed the contract with free agent Julius Randle. He made a good start.
The Pelicans surely enjoyed an exchange last February that allowed them to advance forcibly against Nikola Mirotic. They were 31-26 before the break of the stars, 17-8 after.
"It's such a deadly threat, and as they start from the 4th, that really lets the floor," Kerr said. "And that opens the way for Anthony Davis.
"It's a unique team because they have a unique player in Anthony. And then, it's about putting the right pieces around him. They have done a good job in recent years in finding combinations that work. "
The Warriors defeated New Orleans five times last May. Less than six months later, that does not mean much.
"It's been a long time," said Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry. "When we play the game tonight, it has nothing to do with tomorrow's game.
"It's a completely different season, an entirely different situation, a completely different group of people that has been added and removed from the lists."
Indeed, the beginning of the season suggests possibilities of reorganization in the Western Conference. Pelicans seem to be part of it.
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