Going down to the wire, New Orleans Pelicans take down Houston Rockets 127-130A few practice days after their tough win over the Charlotte Hornets, the New Orleans Pelicans hosted a game versus one of the Western Conference top dogs in the Houston Rockets. Rajon Rondo greeted his old teammates during warm up, and joked around with Demarcus Cousins, a player who was high on Rondo when he was still a Pelican.
Right after tip-off, Anthony Davis quickly asserted his dominance over his weaker defender in Ryan Anderson, promptly abusing him down low with a myriad of post moves, offensive rebounds and dunks. His strong start got the home crowd roaring as soon as Cousins got a block on one end and pushed the break himself, throwing a lob to Davis who dunked it hard over Ryan Anderson. Seeing Davis on a roll quick, the Rockets quickly made adjustments putting Capela on Davis instead, but the damage was done as he wasn't much of a match either and got pulled early in the quarter with 2 fouls.
On the other end, however, the Pelicans struggled with the duo of Chris Paul and James Harden's 3 point shooting. When they did manage to contain the two star players, Trevor Ariza showed he could also hit shots, and even with Davis putting up 17 in the quarter, the score was close at 26-31 for the home team.
In the second quarter, Mike D'Antoni decided to play Capela with the second unit, and the Pelicans bench had no answer for him and Eric Gordon. Either they managed to defend Gordon on the perimeter, but Capela would snag the offensive boards and get easy dunks, or Gordon would be raining down 3 pointers. This would result in the Rockets starting the quarter with a 15-4 run, and by the time the Pelicans put some of their starters back in, the home team was down by 8.
Still expecting Davis to be on fire, the Rockets kept pressuring him everytime he got the ball, with Capela doing an excellent job defending him, along with double teams and perfectly played passing lane interceptions to Cousins, forcing turnovers and easy layups on the other end, something the Rockets do so well. Adjusting to this, the Pelicans sent out Kemba Walker, who again started the game slow, but with all the pressure on the frontcourt, found his rhythm, putting up a quick 9 points, along with some excellent assists to open 3s by Holiday and Batum.
By the end of the first half, the game was tied at 58.
The second half started much as the first one did, this time with a different protagonist in Demarcus Cousins. Capela continued defending Davis, so it was Cousins' turn to abuse both Ryan Anderson and Luc Mbah a Moute. On the other end, the Pelicans still had no answer for Harden and Eric Gordon, who kept popping 3 after 3 and layup after layup.
Staggering their tower's minutes, the Pelicans played Davis without Cousins pressuring the other big. However, Anthony Davis showed everyone why he's one of the best in the league, stepping up and getting a bunch of 3 point plays on Capela, putting him back in foul trouble. With no other big man on the roster capable of even containing Davis, the Rockets risked it, but got punished when Capela picked up his 5th foul with 2:59 left in the 3rd quarter.
As Cousins came back in, and Davis got some rest, he also got himself in foul trouble, being no match for Eric Gordon, picking up 4 fouls as well.
With the two team's Centers in foul trouble, and the other star players looking unstoppable, we were in for a hell of a 4th quarter as the two teams finished the 3rd tied 95-95.
In classic Rockets fashion, a couple of threes by Ariza and Harden put the Rockets up by 7 to start the 4th. With Capela still out, however, Kemba Walker and Cousins continued abusing Ryan Anderson on the defensive end with some easy pick n rolls, leading to easy layups and free throws. And as soon as Anthony Davis came back in, the Pelicans got the crowd ramped up when Cousins blocked a shot, passed it out to Walker by the halfway line, who immediately threw a perfect lob to an Anthony Davis reverse alley-oop dunk, giving the Pelicans a 3 point lead.
As the Rockets hustled to keep the Pelican's 3 all-stars in check, Nicolas Batum found himself a bunch of open space and easy layups, definitely a big contributor as the Pelicans expected when they got him in the Walker trade.
Down by 7 with 2:10 left, James Harden stepped up, making some big shots for a final push. Chris Paul helped the cause, getting a steal and layup to cut the Pelicans lead to 3, but Kemba Walker would have nothing of it, euro-stepping his way to the basket to get the lead back to 5 with 1:10 remaining.
Chris Paul went back the other way, pulling a move on Walker and getting a very difficult floater over the outstretched arms of Anthony Davis, making the game a one-possession game again. With Walker missing on the other end, the Rockets found themselves with the ball, down by 3, with 30 seconds remaining, and called their last timeout of the game.
With an excellent designed play, the Rockets got the inbound pass to an open Chris Paul at the top of the key. His shot would bounce in and back out again, and the Pelicans would grab the rebound with 3 seconds between the shot clock and the game clock.
Using up all the time they could, Kemba Walker would miss another shot, giving the Rockets a chance to push for a game tying 3 pointer with 4 seconds left. However excellent full court pressure stalled the Rockets long enough and Harden was forced to pull up from 35 feet, missing, and sealing the Pelicans victory 127-130.
Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with a massive 39 points, 11 rebounds, while Kemba Walker continued his excellent performance with his new team, putting up 27 and 10 assists. Cousins added a very good all-around game with 16 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks, while Batum, Holiday and Monta Ellis all finished in double digits as well.
On the Rockets, Harden had 34 points, while a foul ridden Capela still put up 22 points and 15 rebounds. Paul and Gordon chipped in with 19 and 17 respectively, with Paul also putting up 11 assists.
Cousins running the break and throwing a lob to Davis over AndersonGerald Green trying to showboat by throwing a windmill dunk, but getting blocked by MillerMonta Ellis trying to lead the Pelicans bench with a layup, but getting rejected by Mbah a MouteDavis being a complete bully, finishing over Capela and Green, and getting Capela his 5th foulAnthony Davis' patented reverse alley-opp dunk