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 The philosophy worked.
Forward Anthony Davis rebounded from one of the worst offensive
performances of his four-year NBA career to score a team-high 30
points, and three teammates supported him with at least 21 points to
power the Pelicans to a 123-119 victory over the Thunder on Thursday
night at the Smoothie King Center.
Despite allowing Westbrook to score a game-high 44 points and Durant
32, the Pelicans took control of the game with a 10-2 run to open
the fourth quarter. New Orleans built a 12-point lead and held on
for the win.
For Davis, the game was a tantalizing bounce-back from his
nine-point, 3-of-9 shooting performance in a 20-point loss at
Washington on Tuesday night, which came on the heels of a
career-high 59-point, 20-rebound outing at Detroit on Sunday.
"Some ups and some downs," Davis said, smiling, after leading the
Pelicans (23-34) to their ninth victory in 12 games. "Some wins,
some losses. Another day in the NBA. That's all it is. You can't
really get too high, you can't get too low."
Davis torched the Thunder (41-17) for 16 first-quarter points as New
Orleans took a 35-32 lead. Although he was held scoreless in the
second quarter, he responded from five consecutive missed shots to
score 10 points in the third quarter as New Orleans regained the
lead for good.
Davis hit a pair of free throws and the Pelicans nailed six
3-pointers in the fourth quarter to ice the game.
Asked if his 59-point game earlier in the week was just "another
game in the NBA," Davis said: "I had 59, but we got a win. I mean,
that only counted one win. You don't get two wins for that. We had
to head on to the next game, and we lost. It really doesn't matter."
In improving their home record to 16-12, the Pelicans got 26 points
from forward Ryan Anderson, 22 from guard Jrue Holiday and 21 from
guard Norris Cole. The New Orleans bench outscored the Thunder
reserves 60-20.
"Clearly, 119 points is enough points," Thunder coach Billy Donovan
said. "We shot a really high percentage (54.7 percent), but
defensively, from the get-go, we gave Anthony Davis a couple of
threes to start the game, and he made a couple of runners. He had a
huge first quarter. Coming out to start the first quarter was the
telltale."
New Orleans used four 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the
fourth quarter -- two by guard Toney Douglas and one each by
Anderson and Holiday -- to extend its lead to 103-95. Douglas
followed up with two driving layups, and the Pelicans led 109-100
with 5:25 remaining.
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When Holiday nailed the fifth 3-pointer of the quarter for the
Pelicans, New Orleans was up 114-103 with 4:04 left. Davis went up
strong to block Westbrook's layup attempt on the other end and came
down hard on his left knee, staying down on the court as Anderson
hit a 3-pointer that gave the Pelicans a 117-105 lead with 3:15
left.
Westbrook hit two layups, a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer from
the top of the key to cut the deficit to 119-114, and Durant kept
the 11-2 run going with another driving layup past forward Dante
Cunningham to make it 119-116 with 1:15 left.
Davis hit two free throws with 64 seconds left to extend New
Orleans' lead to 121-116.
"I thought we played extremely hard," Gentry said. "I told the guys
that I remembered a game where (Westbrook and Durant) had 76 points
and lost. I just kind of made that up, though. They're two great
players, but we felt like if we could try to do a decent job on them
and then try to keep the other guys out of the game that we could
still have an opportunity to win."
Durant recognized his team was playing on the second night of a
back-to-back, but he was miffed at the Thunder's defensive effort.
"They just got at us today," Durant said. "They scored whenever they
wanted, they did whatever they wanted. We didn't show any
resistance. (Playing a back-to-back is) not an excuse. Everyone
plays back-to-backs."
NOTES: Pelicans G Bryce Dejean-Jones, who sustained a broken right
wrist in a loss to Washington on Tuesday night, did not play
Thursday. ... Oklahoma City assistant coach Monty Williams, who was
head coach in New Orleans for five seasons, will not return to the
Thunder bench until he feels comfortable, said Thunder head coach
Billy Donovan. Williams' wife, Ingrid, was killed earlier this month
in an automobile accident. "We haven't talked about when he will be
coming back," Donovan said. "It's been more of how he and his (five)
children are doing, just them adjusting to life without Ingrid. ...
Whatever he decides to do, I'm behind him 100 percent." ... New
Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said he has been texting Williams
regularly. "Right now, all he needs to know ... is that we still
have him in our prayers, and not a day goes by that we don't think
about him and his family," Gentry said.
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