Jrue Holiday continued his stellar play for the New Orleans Pelicans, stealing another game on the Portland Trail Blazers' home floor to go up 2-0 in the series, stripping them of any home court advantage they had as the third seed in the West.
The 6-foot-4 point man has dropped 21 and 33 points in his first two playoff games of this postseason but has done his best work at the defensive end, rendering Damian Lillard to a less-effective cog in the Blazers' offense.
“I may be a bit biased, but if you can tell me a better two-way player in the league right now, I'm willing to listen,” said a proud head coach Alvin Gentry, according to ESPN's Mark Schwarz. “But what we ask him to do and the things we ask him to do offensively, he was just great tonight.”
He's even receiving praise from the Blazers' backcourt, notably a major reason for the Pelicans' success through the start of these playoffs.
“He's playing extremely well,” said C.J. McCollum. “We've got to limit some of his opportunities going forward.”
“Coming off that pick-and-roll, he's able to get those floaters and get to the rim,” said Lillard, who finished with 17 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the floor and 1-of-7 from deep. “He's impacting the game on both ends of the floor.”
Holiday has now shot over 50 percent from the floor for his last six games and recorded double-digit field goals made in six of his last 12 games — transforming into a force at both ends of the court.
Tough to argue with Gentry after the recent results.
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