It’s impossible to overstate just how good Anthony Davis is.
The third-year power forward, just 21 years old, is averaging 24.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.1 blocked shots and 2.3 steals through the first 16 games of the 2014-15 NBA season.
On Tuesday night he added another 25 points, 10 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 blocked shots.
The NBA is a league that rewards seasoning and, barring any injuries, Davis is just going to get better. But after next year he probably won’t be doing it in New Orleans.
Tuesday night’s 112-104 win over the flagging Oklahoma City Thunder at the Smoothie King Center — a microcosm of the Pelicans’ on-again, off-again season — is a good example why.
Oklahoma City had won just five games all season without injured star Kevin Durant, but had built up a bit of a run at home over the two games previous, notching convincing victories over the flat Utah Jazz and the sorry New York Knicks before hopping on a plane to New Orleans.
“Nobody stops Kevin Durant. He’s an all-world player,” Pelicans head coach Monty Williams said before the game.
The Pelicans didn’t stop Durant, who put up 27 points (including 10 in the fourth quarter) and was 6 of 7 from the free throw line
But they didn’t fare much better against the rest of the OKC lineup. Russell Westbrook dropped 21 points on the Birds. Reggie Jackson had 17, and Jeremy Lamb added another 15 of his own.
If not for now-noted OKC-killer Tyreke Evans, the Pelicans would have slid to four losses in a row. Evans scored 30 points in just under 39 minutes on the floor — 15 of those in the fourth quarter. He put up 41 on the Thunder back in April (plus 9 rebounds and 8 assists)
Seemingly impossible dunks made to look effortless, brutal blocked shots -- Anthony Davis really can do it all.
The 25-year-old Evans, now in his 6th season, is having a stellar year averaging 15.9 points through the first 16 games, but as usual it was Anthony Davis who stole the show. Seemingly impossible dunks made to look effortless, brutal blocked shots — like one on Kendrick Perkins in the first quarter that drew gasps from the crowd as he followed up a push-off shot attempt with a palm of the ball, throwing Perkins back down to the hardwood and getting a jump ball call — AD really can do it all.
The crowd knows it (raucous “MVP” cheers were for Davis, not the current title-holder Durant), the national media knows it (Davis’s trademark unibrow — and the rest of him — graces this week’s Sports Illustrated cover), and his opponents know it, too. Players who know enough to respect the phenom have begun to visibly flinch away from trying to power past him or, God forbid, try to go over him.
The Pelicans have picked up the last year on Davis’ rookie contract, but NBA players want to win championships, and this year’s squad, as talented as it seems at times, isn’t much of a contender, especially now that Eric Gordon is out indefinitely with yet another injury. Next year, thanks to aging players and bulging contracts, will be even worse for New Orleans.
If the Pels don’t do it this year, with Davis, they aren’t going to do it any time soon. And without a winning season, much less a playoff appearance, Monty Williams doesn’t have much time left in the Crescent City, either.
Barring a reorganization of the Eastern and brutal Western conferences, the games won’t get any easier.
The Pelicans are just 3-6 on the road this year.
An inconsistent Saints season means public perception of the Pelicans has never been higher — perhaps if you exclude two terrific Hornets seasons in the Chris Paul era.
But Paul left as soon as he could (or as soon as the league would let him go). He wanted to win a championship, as all these guys do, and New Orleans isn’t the place to do it. Anthony Davis wants to win a championship, too. And soon he’ll start casting around for a place to get one.
