Golden State Warriors: 3 takeaways from Game 4 vs. Pelicans

1. Draymond might not be better than A.D., but…

Davis is the best big man in the NBA. He was dominant down the stretch of the regular season, and even better in Round 1 against the Portland Trail Blazers.

He’s not the best player in the NBA, however, or frankly anywhere close to it. The proclamations that were made following the Pelicans’ Round 1 sweep have suddenly disappeared (some of us foresaw this), as Davis has been relatively bottled up through four games.

Now, 26.3 points, 13.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks is not the stat line of a struggling player. More worrisome are the 23.3 shots he’s taken to get to that scoring mark, after averaging just 21.5 shots en route to 33.0 points per game in Round 1.

Through three games, efficiency struggles were largely due to Green’s ability to defend him without fouling. Davis had shot just seven total free throws in the series after Game 3, after averaging 8.0 attempts per game this season.

He broke that trend, getting to the line 10 times in Game 4. However, he went 8-for-22 from the field, failed to make much defensive impact, and finished a game-low -25.

Green, meanwhile, was a game-high +28. He is nothing close to the scorer Davis is, but his overall impact on the game may still be greater. Green has boosted the Warriors’ offense through playmaking (10.3 assists, +4.3 offensive on/off differential, per NBA.com), and dominated the series defensively by both bothering Davis, helping elsewhere and controlling the glass (9.5 defensive boards, 2.0 steals, 1.5 blocks, +12.6 defensive on/off differential).

The Pelicans are at a massive talent disadvantage in this series. Davis is their best player, while Green is Golden State’s third- or maybe fourth-best. That does not excuse Davis from failing to dominate that matchup, nor from failing to be an overwhelmingly positive force on the court (Davis’ on/off differential is only +3.4 in this series). The league’s actual best player, James, has never struggled to make his impact clear against Golden State — even in resounding defeat.

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That Davis has says a lot about his remaining flaws as a player. It says even more about Green, who is every bit outplaying The Brow in this series.