Coach Alvin Gentry said Davis had a posterior or medial thigh injury, but wasn’t sure the extent or the specifics, saying only that the forward was kneed in the second quarter and was having more tests done before the Pelicans flew to Atlanta.
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Without him and without Anthony Davis (who left in the first quarter because of a shoulder injury), the Pelicans were helpless at defending the rim, allowing 16 points in the paint during the game’s first 10 minutes.
With Omer Asik and Anthony Davis out of commission, he suddenly becomes the most reliable rebounder on the floor for New Orleans, and that has gone about as well as one would think.
“I’m just trying to stay in rhythm as much as I can”, Holiday said Sunday.
Danilo Gallinari scored 13 points on a flawless 6-6 shooting in only 10 third quarter minutes before handing the torch to Jameer Nelson, who took the game home in the fourth. “We played hard. We competed”. “We just have to finish out games”.
In MI, the Pistons beat the Cavaliers 104-99 with Andre Drummond scoring 25 points and 18 rebounds, and Detroit came back from a second-half 13-point deficit to win snapping a four-game losing streak. We probably need better terms for these kinds of things.
Both teams shot well overall, with the Nuggets hitting 52.9 percent (45 of 85) and New Orleans 49.4 percent (41 of 83).
It gets annoying year after year to try and look for silver linings when you expected the Pelicans to be going for goddamn gold all season long.
Also, starting center Jrue Holiday was forced to sit out the game because he has not been cleared to participate in back-to-back games to avoid any recurring problems with his surgically repaired lower right leg. With the injuries, the Pelicans only had nine players available against the Thunder. Last Tuesday, against the Dallas Mavericks, Davis left the game with a bruised right hip and subsequently missed two games before returning on Sunday against the NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
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Nuggets: Darrell Arthur was a game-time scratch because of an illness.
