The New Orleans Pelicans completed an impressive four-game sweep over the Portland Trail Blazers in their first-round series on Saturday afternoon. It was a dominating offensive performance through the four contests that led to the Pelicans reaching the Western Conference semifinals for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign.
New Orleans was led by two huge offensive outings in Game 4 with Anthony Davis dropping a double-double with a franchise playoff record 47 points with 11 rebounds while Jrue Holiday put together a playoff career-best 41 points in the 131-123 win. Following the game, veteran point guard Rajon Rondo voiced some huge praise toward his teammates' big offensive performances, according to Will Guillory of NOLA.com.
Rajon Rondo says he considers the performance by Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday tonight one of the best 4 or 5 he's seen in the playoffs.
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) April 22, 2018
This is major boasting coming from Rondo having played in the playoffs for much of his career that saw him be a part of some deep postseason runs. However, it is hard to avoid lofting that type of praise toward both Davis and Holiday for how they played in their first-round playoff series against the Trail Blazers.
Holiday was a major factor on both ends of the court throughout the four games played as he averaged 27.8 points on 56.8 percent shooting from the field and 6.5 assists per contest while scoring 20 or more points three times. He was also an effective defender against helping force All-Star point Damian Lillard forcing him to shoot 35.2 percent from the field and 30 percent from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Davis was a pure mismatch nightmare for the Trail Blazers averaging a double-double of 33.0 points and 12.0 rebounds along with 57 percent shooting from the field and 2.8 blocks and 1.8 steals per contest. This includes notching 20 or more points in each contest while topping 30 points twice.
The duo of Holiday and Davis proved to be too much for Portland to handle as well as Rondo who was a huge factor with his steady play in the backcourt averaging a double-double with 11.3 points and 13.3 assists per game. His presence and vast playoff experience helped provide an even greater offensive spark for the Pelicans that could potentially lead to a deep playoff run.
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