Barber: Curry-less Warriors beat Pelicans 123-101

OAKLAND - On Saturday night, the Warriors got their most important win since the playoffs started, drubbing the New Orleans Pelicans 121-103. In fact, when the final buzzer sounds in June, we might look back at this one as their biggest game of the 2018 postseason.

The Warriors beat a good team without Stephen Curry.

They had breezed past the San Antonio Spurs without Curry in Round 1 of the Western Conference playoffs. But the Spurs' engine was running purely on pride and experience. Without Kawhi Leonard, they didn't have the firepower to hang with the Warriors, not even close. In retrospect, it's kind of amazing the Spurs won one of the five games.

The Pelicans are a different animal. They are young, fast, athletic and aggressive. They have a great player in Anthony Davis. They had beaten Golden State at Oracle Arena just three weeks earlier, on a night when the Warriors played pretty well. And unlike the Spurs, the Pelicans actually believed they could beat the defending champions.

They couldn't, at least not on Saturday. And that result recalibrates this semifinal series. It went from troublesome to “we got this” in a single night. Or really, a single quarter.

The second quarter of Game 1 was the platonic ideal of Warriors basketball. It began with the home team nursing a one-point lead. By the time we got to halftime and the 12-year old violinist, this game was on ice. The Warriors had harried, confused and blitzed the Pelicans to the tune of 41-21 in the span of a quarter. And it was that close only because New Orleans' Darius Miller sank a desperation 73-footer as the clock went to zeroes.

“How could I not enjoy that?” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of his team's second-quarter performance, which included a 37-9 breakaway. “That's an amazing run in that 12 minutes. Combination of offense and defense. I think we had one turnover in the whole quarter, and 10 assists and the ball was moving. But it all started with our defense.”

The first quarter was closer to what we had expected - two flowing, up-tempo teams trading baskets. Pelicans center Anthony Davis scored on half of the Warriors' roster and even lesser options like forward E'Twaun Moore made Golden State pay for open looks. Man, it was entertaining.

But the Pelicans were overwhelmed in the second period. They looked like the toddling team that the Warriors swept in the first round three years ago, not the team that did the sweeping against Portland a week ago.

“Well, that didn't go as planned,” New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said as he sat down at the postgame podium.

The Warriors' defense was stifling in that second quarter. They blocked five shots and affected many others. And they ran, ran, ran after making stops, finding the legs that had abandoned them in the late stretches of the regular season.

Here's a sequence that epitomized the run: Early in the quarter, Warriors up 41-39. New Orleans point guard Rajon Rondo, who might be a warlock, drives past two defenders to the rim. But Kevon Looney comes off his man, Davis, to block Rondo's shot, and seconds later, Quinn Cook is scoring at the other end. Then the Pelicans turn it over, and Shaun Livingston winds up with a quick dunk. Time out New Orleans, with the Warriors up 45-39.

Here's another: Warriors up 73-48 later in the quarter. They've been running the Pelicans dizzy, and they now have the ball in the halfcourt. Klay Thompson passes inside to Draymond Green, the Pelicans converge, and Green kicks it back to Thompson, who had faked to the basket before zipping out to the arc. Thompson calmly checks his feet and drains a 3-pointer, and the Oracle crowd erupts.

Yeah, this was just one game, as Gentry emphasized afterward. But it was the crux game, for one simple reason: Curry is coming back.

There's no guarantee the two-time MVP will play in Game 2, but Kerr said before Saturday's contest that it's likely. I don't doubt it, because I watched Curry work out with assistant coach Bruce Fraser at the end of Saturday morning's shootaround in downtown Oakland. It looked a lot like Curry's usual routine. He cut hard and planted hard as Fraser ran him around the arc. He drained shot after shot. He worked up a real sweat, and he playfully kicked a few basketballs soccer-style (with his non-injured right leg, of course). At the end of the session, Curry left the court in a short sprint.

You get the feeling he could have played Saturday, but the Warriors were swayed by the two-game break between Games 1 and 2. Give Curry the first night off, and it amounts to an extra three days without the rigors of true competition. (Curry will scrimmage today and practice with the team Monday.) He may not start Tuesday night. His minutes might be limited. But Curry should play, and it will shift the balance of this series. If he stays healthy, it will shift the balance of the NBA postseason.

That's why Game 1 was so important to the Pelicans. This was their shot at the incomplete Warriors. If they could steal this one at Oracle and take one out of two in New Orleans later this week, they could make it a series and throw a little worry into their favored opponents. But if the Pelicans can't beat the no-Curry Warriors, how can they hope to beat the Curry Warriors?

Gentry, once Kerr's top assistant, downplayed the significance before the game. “Steph is great,” he said. “But, guys, they're still pretty doggone good without him.”

They'll be better with him, especially when he kicks off some of the rust.

At practice Thursday, the Warriors had drawn a giant curtain across their gym in downtown Oakland, preventing the media from snooping on Curry as he went through a workout. It was like a semi-private hospital room for the recovering superstar, who has been out since mid-March with a Grade 2 sprain of the MCL in his left knee.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain? The Pelicans had that luxury on Saturday. They won't for long, and their days in Oz are numbered.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.