Portland Trail Blazers vs New Orleans Pelicans: Lineups, preview & prediction 4/21/18

BC-BKN-Trail Blazers-Pelicans, 1st Ld-Writethru, 667Davis’ 47 points leads Pelicans to sweep of Trail BlazersAP Photo LAGH128, LAGH124, LAGH105, LAGH101, LAGH120, LAGH126, LAGH127Eds: Pelicans 131, Trail Blazers 123.

The Smoothie King Center was smoking, but not almost as much as the Pelicans in the first quarter.

“I thought this was probably the best he’s played since I’ve been here”. And that’s what happened Saturday from the New Orleans Pelicans in the latest example of this trend.

Jrue Holiday added 16 points and seven assists and Playoff Rajon Rondo showed up again, finishing with 16 points, 11 dimes and five rebounds.

Pile on the finest playoff performance of Mirotic’s four National Basketball Association seasons, and the rout was on in Game 3. “Because if we aren’t, there’s no tomorrow”, Stotts said.

However, Davis and Holiday were simply too strong down the stretch, as the duo scored New Orleans’ final 12 points to maintain the lead and earn the eight-point victory.

While many fans are still reliving their favorite moments, they are even more excited about the team’s potential. The Pelicans now can go for a sweep and avoid returning to the Moda Center if they can prevail here.

The Pelicans will face the victor of the Warriors-Spurs series in the next round. The Warriors now lead the series 3-0. But Portland seemed to cool off shortly before the regular season ended, and never regained peak form.

Stotts said the motivational message to his team was obvious as they head into a potential elimination game Saturday, down 3-0 to the red-hot Pelicans.

Through all the pushing and shoving, Portland trailed New Orleans at half, 56-58. Became the first No. 3 seed to lose in the first round since Denver lost to Golden State in the 2013 playoffs. The Pelicans knocked down 11 of 27 three point attempts in Game 3 and drained 16 of their 19 free throw attempts. Wade had 28 points in 26 minutes in Game 2, but at age 36, there’s no guarantee he’ll consistently summon that sort of performance. “This is just one check mark of the bigger goal that we have in mind”. The main problem for New Orleans is they don’t have anyone to stop Kevin Durant.

It will mark the second time in franchise history the Pelicans play in the quarterfinals. Pelicans forward Nikola Mirotic twisted his right ankle late in Game 2.

The game will be televised live on WGNO at 2:30 pm.

I think the Pelicans would give them a tough series but at the end of the day, the Warriors would win this series in six or seven games because of the championship pedigree they have. “I still don’t trust anything”, Gentry said.