At one point during Anthony Davis‘ dominating performance during the Pelicans’ 117-98 win over a Rockets team missing James Harden and Dwight Howard, Pellies’ analyst David Wesley asked the question, “Man, how do you guard him?” It’s a question without many — or any — answers as Ant prepares to enter his third professional campaign in the bayou.
Where to even begin after Brow dominated on both ends with 26 points (9-of-11 from the floor, and 8-of-10 from the stripe), eight rebounds and four blocks. He worked a number of pretty pick-and-rolls with Jrue Holiday; Brow’s long arms can snag a higher-than-usual entry pass on a dive towards the rim.
He showed off a pretty little pull-up in traffic.
He got out in front of guys on the break for a lob from Holiday — his new partner in crime, who Davis didn’t get a chance to play with last year when Holiday went down with a stress fracture in his right tibia that knocked him out for the year.
He got offensive rebounds against an overmatched Houston frontline and hit the and-1 layup with his off-hand.
His four blocks were highlighted by this smack on Kostas Papanikolaou.
Ant’s disdainful wave of the hand after smacking Popanikolaou’s layup attempt almost seemed to say,”Get that weak ish outta here.”
Donatas Motiejunas and (the surprising) Tarik Black combined don’t equal Dwight Howard, who continues to sit out preseason games, but it’s clear Anthony Davis is on the verge of climbing even higher on the NBA’s totem pole hierarchy of stars. The Unibrow’s MVP candidacy, which Kevin Durant alluded to earlier this offseason, might be closer than we thought.
Can Anthony Davis win the MVP this year?
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