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The Pelicans have Anthony Davis but the Celtics have Isaiah Thomas and some very good team defense. Advantage Celtics.
The Pelicans' offense appears to consist of throwing the ball in the general direction of the rim and watching Anthony Davis dunk it. Seems like a pretty smart strategy to me. Clearly Davis is a special, special player (finished with 29 pts, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks), but I'm pretty underwhelmed by the rest of the roster.
Isaiah Thomas was in attack-the-paint mode. Considering his size and the presence of Anthony Davis and Omer Asik, that might seem like a bad strategy but Thomas has no fear and he made it work. At one point in the 3rd quarter Thomas went straight at Davis and dropped a forever floating teardrop over the top of his forever long arms. Got the bucket and the foul. Beautiful.
Then in the 4th quarter he decided to take over behind the arc. He hit 3 three pointers in under 4 minutes and then got fouled going up for another 3. This guy is a 5'9" force of nature. I'm a blogger and I've run out of words to describe this guy. Unreal. He finished with 27 points.
Kelly Olynyk looked healthy and seemed to be moving well, but he was also clearly rusty and out of rhythm, missing his first 8 shots.
Fun fact: Brad Stevens is the only head coach (non-interem) that hasn't gotten a technical called on him this year.
The Celtics locked down the Pelicans in the 2nd half forcing them into a low shooting percentage and sealing the win. They have now swept the season series against New Orleans.