What generally comes to mind when a No. 1 team like the Golden State Warriors sweeps a No. 8 squad like the New Orleans Pelicans in a NBA first-round playoff series?
Something along the lines of, “Oh, that’s just a typical top seed beating up on a team that barely made it into the postseason.” Right?
Well, in many respects yes.
The Warriors won two games by double digits, enjoyed multiple 20-point leads and notched an average margin of victory of eight points.
But as dominant as Golden State’s sweep of New Orleans was, there were a few aspects that revealed a somewhat closer opening-round battle.
The Pelicans made it a two-possession contest late in the fourth quarter in Games 1 and 2, nearly won Game 3 after rocking a 20-point advantage after three quarters and climbed back to within single digits of the lead late in the series closeout.
The end result speaks for itself, but still doesn’t tell the whole story.
Let’s break down both the close and the dominant of the Warriors and Pelicans four-game tussle.
Game 1: GSW 106, NOP 99
The Warriors held the Pelicans to a mere 13 points and were up by 15 after one quarter of play.
New Orleans upped its scoring output to 28 points in the second quarter. But the Dubs dropped 31 themselves and increased their lead to 18 points at halftime
Golden State’s advantage stretched to 35 points late in the third quarter. Stephen Curry then added seven of his 34 points and fellow splash brother Klay Thompson contributed eight of his 21 that helped preserve a double-digit lead for much of the fourth quarter as well.
But as much as Anthony Davis career-high 20 points in a single quarter cut the deficit to just four with nine seconds left on the clock, there were still only nine seconds left. Curry and Harrison Barnes easily iced the game from the line shortly thereafter.
The real “close” didn’t arrive until the rematch at Oracle Arena.
Game 2: GSW 97, NOP 87
The Pelicans asserted themselves in impressive form right from the opening tip.
Eric Gordon, Davis and Tyreke Evans made five of the team’s first six shots in front of a raucous Oracle crowd and New Orleans led by 11 points at the end of the first quarter.
A dominant second quarter by Golden State, including eight points each by Curry and Leandro Barbosa, put the home team up for only a brief time. A low-scoring affair on both sides knotted the score at 71-all after three.
But then Thompson and the NBA’s No. 1 defense happened.
Thompson drilled 14 points in the fourth quarter and Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut helped stifle the Pelicans over the final 4:34. Evans’ lone free throw was the only point scored by New Orleans during that concluding stretch.
OK, so as much as this one was a tight contest, the really close game—and Warriors’ near defeat—didn’t come until Game 3.
Game 3: GSW 123-119 (OT)
Imagine Game 1 happened all over again. Then imagine it happened in reverse.
The Pelicans started things off with a modest one-point lead after the opening frame but propelled it to 11 points after a scoring-crazed 37-point second quarter. Backups Ryan Anderson and Norris Cole looked more like Dirk Nowitzki and Ty Lawson, as both piled up 11 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
The Pelicans’ barrage in front of their home faithful, however, didn’t stop there.
They matched their first quarter total of 26 points in the third and held Golden State to just 17 points. Davis led the way on both ends with eight points, five rebounds, three blocks and one steal.
New Orleans’ crushing advantage ballooned to 20 points after three periods. It was as high as 15 points with 5:09 remaining in the fourth and 10 points with less than three minutes left on the clock.
But Green and Thompson combined for three made jumpers and a free throw by Shaun Livingston cut the deficit to only three points. A mere 0:21 remained.
Then the impossible yet totally believable happened.
The Pelicans were up 107-102 following two made free throws by Jrue Holiday. After a Warriors’ 20-second timeout and usual play-calling mastery by head coach Steve Kerr, Green found Curry for a bomb from 24 feet.
At 107-105, Green fouled Davis immediately on the Pelicans’ inbound. And Davis, an 80.5 percent free throw shooter, converted just one of two from the line.
Please now make your acquaintance with unadulterated magic on the hardwood.
After one more Golden State timeout, the Pelicans shockingly refrained from fouling arguably the best three-point shooter the NBA has ever seen. Curry missed his first attempt, but due to a hustle rebound by Marreese Speights—and another zero effort to foul by New Orleans—he found Curry with a perfect touch pass in the corner.
With two Pelicans barreling down on top of him, the Baby-faced Assassin hit nothing but net. And he did so with his eye closed—literally. Game tied.
Despite the refs’ attempts to extend the game via bogus foul calls, seven points from that aforementioned Assassin sealed the Dubs’ comeback triumph at 123-119.
So close, yet so dominant…
Game 4: GSW 109, NOP 98 & Final Thoughts
Give the Pelicans a ton of credit for coming out firing in Game 4.
They held their own on both ends of the court and played much better than what the 13-point halftime deficit or 21-point hole after three quarters would suggest. Outscoring the Warriors by 10 in the final frame and coming within seven points of the lead with 1:36 left on the clock did much more justice to their stellar efforts.
But one play in particular served as a microcosm for the entire series.
With Davis draped all over him and trapping him right in front of the Pelicans’ bench, Curry made use of his seemingly inches of space a launched a high-arcing jumper. It dropped perfectly in the hoop and relegated Davis’ otherwise perfect defense to something of an unfortunate past.
As close and as perfect and as dominant as Davis or the Pelicans could ever play in this four-game set, the Warriors would always find a way. They were the superior team and would win by whatever means available to them.
And in the final game, 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists from Green, 13-of-24 shooting from distance (54.2 percent) from Green and the Splash Brothers and suffocating overall defense proved that superiority.
Davis might have finished with an incredible series average of 31.5 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in his very first NBA postseason.
Unfortunately, it was just never going to be enough against Curry and Co. in 2015.
The top-seeded Warriors clinched their second sweep in franchise history and now await the winner of the Portland-Memphis matchup.
All team and player stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.
Follow Joey on Twitter @jlevitt16 as he tries to wax eloquent on all things Warriors, NBA, NFL, MLB and the sports world at large.