Sitting one game back of the Phoenix Suns in the race for the eighth seed in the Western Conference, the New Orleans Pelicans could not have asked for much more before the season began. The Oklahoma City Thunder being another counterpart in the race is not exactly ideal, but merely staying afloat has to be considered a moral victory.
Anthony Davis was practically gushing during All Star Weekend about how excited he is to get back onto the court with his team and make a run towards the playoffs. It was nice to see him put the team in front of his own personal accolades by sitting out the game to further nurse his shoulder sprain.
His presence was still felt enormously through various American Express commercials, interviews and his unique decision to dress up as one of the Three Blind Mice.
Dressing in that attire alone may have been more productive for his brand than actually playing in the game.
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Starting Friday night against the Orlando Magic, the Pelicans will embark on a five-game stretch against strictly Eastern Conference foes. The last time New Orleans went through a cycle of Eastern Conference teams, they struggled and suffered gut-wrenching losses to the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks.
In other words, the Pelicans have only themselves to blame if they miss out on the playoffs by only a few games.
It is imperative that the Pellies come out of the break firing on all cylinders against a weaker portion of their schedule. Everyone is waiting for Oklahoma City to go into totally FU-mode (already beginning to happen) and string off a winning streak of approximately 3,498 games.
Russell Westbrook is single-handedly trying to win games by himself (and the Pelicans know better than anyone that he can get pretty damn close) and Kevin Durant is lashing out at the media like never before. And it’s freaking awesome.
New Orleans owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Thunder (thanks, Mr. Davis!) but they should still be very, VERY afraid of Oklahoma City entering into full FU mode. As should the rest of the league.
Phoenix is suddenly starting to crumble with a countless number of unlucky losses and the rumblings of Goran Dragic‘s eventual departure. Their demise seems to be more of a forgone conclusion than a question at this point.
Having said that, they are still a frisky team capable of torpedoing themselves to victory against any opponent and have the opportunity to take stranglehold of the tiebreaker over the Pelicans.
These next five games will say a lot about New Orleans going forward. For whatever reason, they have struggled to play against “inferior” opponents (at least record wise) due to a lack of focus and intensity.
All young teams struggle with inconsistencies before eventually turning the corner, and expecting New Orleans to turn that corner right now is a lot to ask.
BUT, there is still a chance that The Brow can scare the hell out of Golden State Warriors in round one. That is something we all should be rooting for.
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