Anthony Davis Goes Down With Sprained Ankle, New Orleans Pels Hang On To Beat Kings 114-101
New Orleans Pelicans Win 10th Straight Game
Buddy Hield of the Sacramento Kings attempts to block New Orleans Pelican's Rajon Rondo shot to no avail at Golden 1 Center. Publicity Agents photo art by T. Ray Harvey. March. 7, 2018.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Sacramento, Calif. —
Obviously, Anthony Davis is not going to give DeMarcus Cousins one of his Achilles. since the All-Star center went down with such injury, his sidekick has been giving the New Orleans Pelicans his all on the court.
Now the Pelicans are hoping that Davis doesn’t need an ankle. Davis suffered a sprained ankle after he landed on Sacramento Kings center Kostas Koufos’ foot with a little over three minutes left in the third quarter quarter.
Ahead by as many as 23 points, the Pelicans (38-26) hung on to win the game 114-101, their 10th victory in a row. X-rays came back negative on Davis’ ankle, Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry said.
“We won’t know anything until (Thursday),” Gentry said. “We’ll go back home and I’m sure he’ll have an MRI at some stage. Then we’ll have more information.”
On the second night of a back-to-back, Davis had 17 points, five rebounds, five blocked shots, and two steals in 23 minutes. Nikola Mirotic came off the bench to lead New Orleans with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Jrue Holiday added 23 points, eight assists, three rebounds, three steals and one blocked shots.
Buddy Hield had 20 points, five rebounds, and one assists while Zach Randolph added 19 points, five rebounds and two assists for the Kings (20-45). The Pels beat the Los Angeles Clippers 121-116 the night before.
Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry was talking about how the Pelicans’ rebounding and defense has improved since Cousins went down with a season-ending ruptured left Achilles. But it’s been their increased scoring that has stood out as of lately.
In the last 10 games, all victories, the Pelicans have been averaging 124.9 points per game. New Orleans held the Kings to 41.9 percent shooting from the floor, making only 39 of 93 shots. The Pels made 47 of 83 shots at 56.6 percent.
"It was a rough one," said Justin Jackson of the Kings, who finished with 14 points. "We missed some shots and they were shooting really well."
The Kings made a run at the Pelicans went Davis went to the locker. New Orleans led 81-61 when Davis went down and the Kings came back to cut the lead 103-94 with 3:12 left in the fourth. The Pelicans ended the game by outscoring the Kings 11 to 7.
The Pelicans know the Kings can play with them. The season series end at 2-2.
“Even though we won we have to do a better job of playing better. We didn’t play well at all,” Davis said. “We can do that against teams like this but to better ourselves we have to do a better job, at least when I was in there, to make sure that we execute our game plans and don’t play down to the level of our competition. We went out there and thought it was going to be an easy game. This team’s always going to fight. They beat us twice.”
By T. Ray Harvey | PA Public Information Officer and Photographic Artist
Twitter: Tony Ray Harvey @PublicityAgents
T. Ray (Antonio) Harvey is a Public Information Officer and Photographic Artist for Publicity Agents. Harvey is also the author of The HOMICIDAL HANDYMAN OF OAK PARK: MORRIS SOLOMON JR.
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