After surprisingly sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2018 NBA playoffs, the New Orleans Pelicans are preparing for the Golden State Warriors in the second round. With Game 1 nearing, all the attention is on if Stephen Curry will be able to make his playoff debut after suffering a knee injury against the Atlanta Hawks on Mar. 23.
Coming off averages of 33.0 points and 11.8 rebounds against the Blazers, Anthony Davis and the Pelicans have all the confidence in the world after playing their best basketball of the 2017-18 NBA season. With Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo both playing at a high level, Davis knows they can beat the Warriors according to William Guillory of NOLA.com:
“We know we can beat them. We've done it in the regular season, and we've been in every game that we've lost,” Davis said. “We know we're a good matchup against these guys and we've got a lot of confidence in ourselves.”
By beating the Warriors, Davis sees it as an opportunity for his teammates to add to their resume:
“It's an opportunity to beat the world champs,” Davis said. “To come in and try to beat them in a seven-game series is going to be fun. … It's a great opportunity for everybody to add to their resume.”
With most experts picking the Warriors in the second round, it provides the Pelicans another opportunity to shock the basketball world. Despite not having homecourt advantage against Portland, New Orleans swept them in dominating fashion.
With or without Curry in the second round, the thought process is the Warriors only need him in a potential Western Conference Finals matchup against the Houston Rockets. If the 30-year-old needs more time, it will be interesting to see if head coach Steve Kerr continues with Andre Iguodala as the team's starting point guard against Holiday and Rondo.
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