Anthony Davis and the Pelicans ended the Hawks winning streak
A lone “Ant” took out the mighty Hawks, Saint Augustin took the Heat out of Miami, and a trio of performances ruled Wednesday night. Plus, Boogie and Cliff Paul’s brother got a bit heated, while the “Ant” struck back before going down.
This is the Week That Was.
The Streak Is Over!
On Monday, Feb. 2, the Atlanta Hawks headed over to New Orleans to capture win number 20 of their winning streak. They had a perfect 17-0 record for January, with all members of their starting five getting the NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month Award. The Hawks went into Monday night primed to take another one with Jeff Teague leading the charge. His career-highs of 17.2 points and 7.5 assists per game have made the 2015 All-Star the centerpiece of this strong team. Sometimes success gets to your head, though, and you think you can take on a one-man wrecking crew.
A little before halftime, Teague was near the corner and was matched up against the dude with the Pelican-like 7’7″ wingspan, Anthony Davis. Teague caught Davis in isolation and tried to fake Davis out with some sweet handles, but Davis didn’t take the bait. The other Pelicans defenders decided to stick their men instead of coming over to help Davis. So then Teague took matters into his own hands, made a back step to set up his jumper, let it fly, and then BLAM!
-This GIF can be found at DimeMag.com
I’m sure Teague will second guess trying to catch Davis off guard next time. Remarkably, Davis was even able to come up with his own block, but “Ant” had an even more dazzling highlight from earlier that night. Look at this hard putback!
Anthony Davis is a freak, exhibit 987 https://t.co/zBscj0r3Cb
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 8, 2015
-This Vine was posted by NBA on TNT
All in all, the Hawks had their wings clipped by the Pelicans 115-100, and Davis’ 29 points, 13 rebounds, three dimes, and two blocks were the driving force behind that. However, Davis wasn’t done wowing us for the week…
Saint Augustin Steps Up
D.J. Augustin is starting to build a reputation as one of the best stop-gap point guards in the league. Last season, the Chicago Bulls needed a point guard to fill in for Derrick Rose during his absence and picked up Augustin. Augustin’s offense helped Chicago make a playoff push and he finished the season as the team’s top scorer per game. Fast forward to this season and we once again see Augustin crushing the competition as a fill-in starter, this time for Brandon Jennings and his ruptured Achilles tendon. In seven games as a starter since Jennings’ demise, Augustin has averaged an overlooked 20.4 points and 9.0 assists per game! In spite of that, the Pistons still went on a four game losing streak after losing Jennings, but have gone 3-1 in four games since then. So what’s changed?
First off, Jennings and Augustin have very different play styles and coach Stan Van Gundy had to figure out how to play to Augustin’s strengths, since plugging Augustin right into Jennings’ role clearly didn’t help the win column. Augustin doesn’t have the ridiculous confidence (arrogance?) that Jennings has and is much more cautious as a baller. Augustin won’t try a difficult crossup against an opposing defender to create his own shot. He usually won’t even attempt a potentially contested three-pointer. Don’t even bother asking him to put up a fadeaway. He knows his limits and won’t push them. The key to Augustin’s success is “the key,” and once Van Gundy figured that out, he put Augustin’s ability to attack the paint to work.
Whenever Augustin drives the lane, the offense is drawn up to have three options laid out for him.
Option 1 – Kick it out to one of your reliable three-point shooters on the perimeter: Kyle Singler (41.2 percent), Kentavious Caldwell Pope (35.2 percent), or Anthony Tolliver (35.2 percent).
-This GIF can be found at DetroitSportsNation.com
Option 2 – Take it to the rack, with your two rebounding machines (Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe) there to score second chance buckets if you fail
-This GIF can be found at DetroitSportsNation.com
Option 3 – Letting your two monster bigs, Drummond and Monroe, just put up the rock themselves
-This GIF can be found at DetroitSportsNation.com
The Heat were totally unprepared for Augustin’s quickness and ability to facilitate offense from the post, resulting in a 108-91 stomping of Miami on Tuesday, Feb. 3. Augustin bore a gaudy statline of 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting with two treys, four rebounds, a steal, and a season-high 13 assists. Fantasy-leaguers can expect him to put up early-round value the rest of the way.
Wednesday’s Big Three
Wednesday, Feb. 4, saw two superstars and a budding big man destroy the stat sheet. When the least impressive of the three performances involved 45 points, then you know Wednesday was a fantasy owner’s dream.
The Kevin Durant-less, 10th-place Oklahoma City Thunder went to New Orleans to take on the ninth-place Pelicans in a must-win game as the Thunder fight for a playoff spot in the difficult Western Conference. Russell Westbrook came up strong out of the gate and never let up, scoring 45 point on 16-of-31 shooting with six rebounds and six assists.
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 8, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 8, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
The six turnovers were the only negative of Westbrook’s game, but it doesn’t matter to OKC when you beat the Pelicans 102-91 on the road. Westbrook’s takeover and resulting win put the Thunder just a game behind the Pelicans and only 2.5 games behind the Suns for the eighth spot. Would the Pelicans answer back? Stay tuned.
The second most impressive performance of the night came from Mr. Whiteside himself. Hassan Whiteside put up his best performance yet, in a stunning 102-101 loss to Minnesota. The ex-D-Leaguer hit 12 of his 13 shots for 24 points with 20 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks! Sadly, this effort will not be remembered as the best game of Hassanity’s burgeoning career, but instead as a missed opportunity due to a dubious mental lapse between him and Norris Cole.
With 39 seconds left, the Wolves were up 102-101 after a Kevin Martin jumper. Cole inbounded the ball to Whiteside, but then told Whiteside to get out of bounds to inbound the ball again, resulting in a turnover that put a damper on Miami’s shot to win the game.
-This GIF can be found on Gfycat.com
Methinks that Cole was under the impression that he failed to properly inbound the ball, like he thought he might have been inbounds when he handed the ball off to Whiteside. Who really knows, though?
Finally, Stephen Curry delivered the most impressive performance on a night of awe-inspiring basketball. After just seven minutes of action, Golden State found themselves down 24-4 to Dallas. The Warriors allowed the Mavericks to drop 42 big ones on them in the first quarter, making it the second-highest first quarter point total in the league this season. It just wasn’t the Warrior basketball we were used to seeing. The “Baby-Faced Assassin” wasn’t ready to give up, though, and fueled a ferocious comeback attempt with a 26-point third quarter.
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-This GIF can be found on SBNation.com
Curry just had his way with Dallas all night, hitting 10-of-16 from long range, and nine-of-11 from the line. His final bucket of the night featured a well-done crossover to stun Raymond Felton and nail the final three.
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 8, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
This performance marked the seventh time in league history that two teammates have had 50-point games in a season. Need we remind you of Klay Thompson’s January explosion against Sacramento?
Even Steve Kerr is flabbergasted at how good his backcourt is!
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 8, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
CP3 and Boogie Speak Out
On Feb. 5, the Clippers spent a whole night getting straight dunked on, and even alley-ooped on, by the Cavaliers in a humiliating 105-94 loss to Cleveland, in which the loss was more severe than the score suggests. Early in the third quarter, Chris Paul was T’ed up by rookie ref, Lauren Holtkamp. He spoke about the foul negatively after the game and said, “this might not be for her,” which some believe is Chris Paul saying that women shouldn’t referee NBA games.
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 9, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
Make sure to put on the volume for this Vine. The technical happened early in the third quarter when the Clips were down by 23 points, with Cleveland eventually extending their lead to 31 points by the end of the quarter. Despite the game being out of reach anyway, Chris Paul was still upset about the technical from Holtkamp, who is only the NBA’s third female referee in league history. When Paul’s comments are looked at without any context, it does seem that his negativity toward her is mostly because she is a woman refereeing in a men’s league. ESPN’s Arash Markazi wrote an article featuring more of Paul’s comments and the context surrounding it, and the NBA on TNT crew broke it down a little further too. Quite frankly, Paul’s word choice was rather interesting and it’s easy to see why some feathers would be ruffled at his statement. I don’t think he meant it as a slight toward women, but perhaps it might have been easier for him to say what he said because she is woman. Regardless, the NBA Referees Association has already thrown their support behind Holtkamp by saying, “The NBRA deplores the personal and unprofessional comments made by Chris Paul. She belongs.”
On the same night, DeMarcus Cousins finally voiced his frustrations after losing their 10th game in an 11-game span to the Nowitzki-less, Rondo-less Mavericks. The Kings are more talented than the depleted Mavericks when they’re missing their stars, but took an 101-78 beating anyway. You can watch him condemn his teammates’ effort here.
It’s easy to see why Boogie would just be sick of losing at this point, since he still contributed big time with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, 11 rebounds, a steal, and two blocks. Despite his six turnovers, the All-Star played well on Thursday and has been the main positive for the Kings this season, averaging career-highs in points (23.8), rebounds (12.4, third-highest in the league), and free-throw percentage (81.2 percent). The Kings do have enough talent to right the ship, and Cousins still thinks so too based on his comments. His teammates just can’t give up and think that their season is over. However. in order for that to happen, Cousins will have to stay focused and lead his team with his play on the court.
Unibrow Sinks OKC…Then Sinks to Injury
The Pelicans tried their hardest to lose on Friday night in their second straight game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With New Orleans up by one with just 17 seconds left, Tyreke Evans managed to miss both of his free throws, rebound his own missed free throw, and immediately give Kevin Durant a present.
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 9, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
It’s hard to hate on Evans, who finished the game with his first triple-double of the season on 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 16 assists. Fortunately, Omer Asik was there to contest Durant’s runner and Anthony Davis rebounded the ball with 2.8 seconds remaining. Two free throws later, the Pelicans found themselves up by three. The only task at hand is to prevent the Thunder from shooting a three, oh wait…
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 9, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
Instead of contesting the three, Quincy Pondexter attempted to murder Russell Westbrook, which resulted in three free throws. Westbrook drained all of them to put a cap on his ridiculous season-high 48-point (15-of-15 free throws), nine rebound, 11 assist, and four steal performance, but also set up this beauty:
— Jonathan Ebanks (@hogz4lyfe) February 9, 2015
-This Vine was posted by Vinnyviner
Anthony Davis finished his fantastic game with 41 points and 10 rebounds, and his game-winning shot shook up the Western Conference playoff race. The Pelicans moved to just one game behind the eighth-place Phoenix Suns, while building a two-game cushion between themselves and the Thunder. After that shot, Anthony Davis is now 11-of-12 on shots to tie or take the lead in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime this season. Davis’ first three of the season certainly came at the right time, wouldn’t you say?
Not even 24 hours after his unexpected shot to silence the Thunder, Anthony Davis‘ shoulder was injured on a hard fall from the rim after an alley-oop against Chicago.
-This GIF can be found on ScreenGrabber.Deadspin.com
He left the game and didn’t return during the Pelicans’ 107-72 home loss to the Bulls on Saturday. The X-rays came back negative and Davis is diagnosed with a right shoulder sprain. He is officially questionable for Monday.
Jonathan Ebanks is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Jonathan, check out his archive and follow him @hogz4lyfe.
