New Orleans energized, visiting NBA team isn’t
NEW ORLEANS — Trombone Shorty played at the famed Maple Leaf Bar here in the wee hours of Friday morning.
And the local legend still showed more energy and fire Friday night during his Game 3 halftime performance than the Warriors did in all four quarters against the Pelicans.
This city registers “lit” as its resting state. And this week, the place is more hyped than usual. Jazzfest is one of the greatest party weeks in America’s greatest party city.
“I’m not an idiot. I see what they’re trying to accomplish a mile away.”
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Adding the first NBA secondround playoff win in more than a decade to the mix puts the celebratory mood on blast.
Before the game, New Orleans head coach Alvin Gentry predicted the enthusiasm inside Smoothie King Center would be at an all-time high.
“That’s just what we do in New Orleans,” Gentry said. “We find a way to celebrate and have fun. If it works out, it’s great. And if it doesn’t work out, we still party.”
It worked out Friday. The Pelicans haven’t been in the second round since 2008, when a young Chris Paul was guiding the team (that included a young David West).
On Friday, the Pelicans dismantled the Warriors 119100, assuring that the series will return to Oakland for Game 5 on Tuesday night. That will force Pulitzer Prizewinning rap artist Kendrick Lamar to move his concert scheduled for the same night at Oracle Arena.
Apparently, in this series, it’s all about the music.
The Warriors, who lost only one playoff game all last postseason, came out looking like they had spent the afternoon wandering around Jazzfest in the heat and humidity, rather than resting in their air-conditioned hotel.
The Warriors shot 38 percent, 29 percent from beyond the three-point arc. It was a flat Game 3 performance, similar to what we saw in 2016, when the Warriors lost all four of their Game 3s. That point of a series is always a tough pivot, when the lower-seeded team returns to its arena, with fired-up fans who want to will their team to victory.
For the Pelicans on Friday, it was a little payback for what happened three years ago in Game 3. In that first-round matchup, the Warriors — who proceeded to win the title — were losing to the Pelicans by 20 points after three quarters. But the Warriors mounted a comeback, and with just seconds left, Stephen Curry hit a corner three to tie the game. The Warriors won in overtime and swept the series.
Though Anthony Davis claimed not to think about that game Friday, he recently conceded that it had haunted him.
“I think about that all the time,” Davis said. “We were up 20 going into the fourth and then they come back and win it in overtime. It was tough for us.”
Gentry, who was on the Warriors’ bench at the time, said he has kept a photo of Curry hitting that shot on his phone all these years.
“And now I can erase it,” Gentry said.
“Because I was on the Warriors’ bench, it made it so scary tonight,” he said.
He need not have been frightened. The Warriors did not mount a comeback. Curry was not at his best; his 6-for-19 shooting explained by Steve Kerr as the product of being the second game back.
Down by six at the half, the Warriors got uncharacteristically whacked over the head in the third quarter, getting outscored 30-19.
New Orleans doesn’t have a history of huge NBA support and any Warriors fans who were willing to tackle the inflated Jazzfest hotel and airline prices were able to find tickets.
But the arena was truly rocking Friday night. It helps that the fans had Public Enemy No. 1 to fuel their fury.
Draymond Green arrives in every town with a reputation, and is booed at every opposing arena. He landed in the Crescent City with the Charles Barkley “punch him in the face” quote hanging over his head, and the fans were ready to jump him.
“He’s our engine, and he brings the whole arena with him, one way or another,” Kerr said.
Before the game, Kerr joked that “one of the great stats of this year’s playoffs” was that Green didn’t have a technical. The Pelicans, particularly Rajon Rondo, are working hard to change that. Green and Rondo continue to have heated interactions when play has stopped, but much of it seems to be instigated by Rondo.
At one point, replays appeared to show Rondo shoving Green. At another, Rondo looked to trip Green.
“I’m not an idiot,” Green said. “I see what they’re trying to accomplish a mile away.”
Green hasn’t taken the bait, but he’s going to need to bring some fire and fury to get his team to reverse Friday’s trend in Game 4.
I would suggest the Warriors borrow Trombone Shorty for a pregame rally Sunday afternoon, but he’ll be closing out Jazzfest that day. On Friday, the Warriors blew their chance to close out the series at the same time.