Warriors throttle Pelicans, advance to conference finals

OAKLAND - Five Warriors turned their backs on the New Orleans Pelicans and walked away.

Nothing personal against the Pelicans. The game was over, and they lost 113-104. They were history, eliminated from the playoffs, a footnote on the Warriors’ season. A warmup for the Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets.

The Warriors remembered the Pelicans after a moment and walked back on the court to congratulate them. Head coach Steve Kerr hugged Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry, two old friends and former colleagues giving mutual respect. Stephen Curry talked with Gentry and they smiled at each other. They go back a long way. And Draymond Green and Pelicans center Anthony Davis hugged, but Davis looked ill. Then Davis walked off the court, through the tunnel and into a long offseason.

“That was a hell of a series,” Kerr said. “They kept coming at us. We’re happy to be moving on. Fourth straight conference finals - our guys should be proud of themselves.”

Green set the tone for the Warriors with fantastic defense on Davis, the Pelicans’ best player. Davis scored 34 points on 26 shots. Green finished the game one assist shy of a triple double - he had 19 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists. For the series, he averaged 14.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 10 assists. He is the first player in Warriors history to average a triple double in a playoff series.

“It’s just fun to watch the intensity he plays with,” Curry said. “Right now, he’s the whole package.”

Green wasn’t the only Warrior who played well in Game 5. Klay Thompson scored 23 points, Kevin Durant scored 24 and Curry scored 28. Curry was playing in his fourth game since returning from a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee, an injury which kept him out of action for 52 days.

“We played him 37 minutes tonight,” Kerr said. “The conditioning is absolutely coming. In fact, it’s probably there. It feels like he’s back now.”

Kerr stuck with the same starting lineup for Game 5 that he used in Game 4: Curry, Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Durant and Green. Their best five.

“You can call them any kind of five,” New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry said before the game. “You can call them the Jackson 5. They’re good, and the thing that makes them really tough is they’re a position-less team. All of them are multiple-position players. Klay can be a 2, 3, whatever you want him to be.

“Steph, same thing. Draymond can basically play all the positions on the floor. That’s what makes it really difficult to play against them, just the versatility that those guys have.”

The Warriors’ starting five played together the first 7:50 of the game and outscored the Pelicans 23-16 during that stretch. Thompson scored 14 of the Warriors’ first 23 points and made five of his first six shots from the field.

“Klay broke out quickly,” Kerr said. “It was good, because we otherwise didn’t seem to be making a lot of shots.”

The Warriors led 32-26 when the second quarter started and increased their lead to 48-37 with 4:55 remaining before the half.

That’s when the game shifted. The Pelicans went on a 17-4 run and took a 54-52 lead with 1:48 left in the second quarter. They wouldn’t go away. They were playing to live.

The Warriors’ defense, so good throughout most of the playoffs, fell apart at the end of the second quarter. The Warriors allowed the Pelicans to make 8 of 11 shots during that stretch.

At halftime, the Warriors led 59-56. Pelicans center Davis, who matched up with Green most of the game, had 18 points and 10 assists. And Pelicans shooting guard Jrue Holiday, who matched up with Durant most of the game, had 14 points on 8 shots. Durant was leaving him open, unlike Game 4, when Durant wouldn’t give him an inch.

“Kevin changes the entire game for us with his defense when he is engaged and locked in,” Kerr said before the game. “Kevin has a different gear that he can get to defensively. And when he gets there, it’s devastating.”

Durant didn’t get to that gear in the first half. He wasn’t engaged or locked in defensively. But he did score 16 points and shoot 60 percent from the field before halftime.

After halftime, the Warriors went back to their starting lineup, and immediately scored 10 unanswered points.

That was the crisis moment, the third quarter, when the Warriors took over. When they always take over. As natural as the sun rising in the morning. Suddenly, Durant found his extra gear defensively. Suddenly, the Pelicans couldn’t hit shots. Suddenly, the Warriors led by 18.

Then, by 21 points. Then, by 24 points. The Warriors are like a building storm. It starts with scattered showers. By the end, it’s a downpour spreading all over the world.

The Warriors made the Pelicans look confused, grim and defeated. Like they knew the third quarter would happen just the way it did. The Warriors outscored them 36-19 during that quarter. Game. The Pelicans later went on a run during the fourth quarter and cut the Warriors’ lead to seven points, but that run was too late. Another footnote.

The Pelicans showed they’re a good team, but not in the same universe as the Warriors, and the Pelicans seemed to understand that.

They went out bravely in Game 5 and got destroyed.