In a crucial battle against the Memphis Grizzlies, the New Orleans Pelicans came out on top, 95-89.
After coming away with this tough victory, the New Orleans Pelicans find themselves just a half game back from the eighth seed.
The Pelicans have found themselves in great position to get back to the playoffs, something they haven't done since 2009, after beating the Memphis Grizzlies tonight.
It would be a hard fought victory by the Pelicans at home in the Smoothie King Center as the Grizz are one of the better teams in the NBA.
The Grizzlies didn't see the domination they usually enjoy from their big guys down low. The top scores for the Grizzlies would be Jeff Green with 20, Mike Conley with 17, and Beno Udrih off of the bench with 12. Marc Gasol finished the game with eight points, seven rebounds, and six assists.
For the Pelicans, it would be Tyreke Evans, who has taken on the role of point guard in the absence of Jrue Holiday, who led the team with 26 points and seven assists.
Of course the star of the team made his presence felt too. Anthony Davis finished the game with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocks. For Davis, it wasn't just the stats he put up, but also the lack of stats he let Zach Randolph produce. Davis kept Randolph, who averages a double-double, completely in check the entire game. Randolph was held to seven points and two rebounds in 29 minutes of play.
All signs point towards positivity in New Orleans as they look to make it in to postseason play for the first time since the team became the Pelicans. The team has shown that they can still play hard and compete even though they are currently without Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson.
If this Pelicans team can make the playoffs with the team they have now, getting Anderson and Holiday back would only make them more dangerous.
As for star forward Anthony Davis, he seems to have an upbeat attitude at the moment and seems quite content with his situation and appears to be having fun playing.
In tonight's game, when Davis had nine rebounds and when a Grizzlies player put up a shot with less than five seconds left, he grabbed the board before the buzzer sounded to make it 10 and then playfully jogged over to the scores table where Joel Meyers and David Wesley were seated and said laughing, "I had to make sure I got that last rebound, had to get that double-double."
It's a sigh of relief for Pelicans fans to think Davis might be content staying and growing with the Pelicans and may want to be in the Big Easy long term. A trip to the playoffs might be just enough motivation to make that become a reality.