Anthony Davis leads Pelicans over Magic with rarefied stat line
Anthony Davis might be a problem.
Not for the New Orleans Pelicans, for himself, or for fans, but for opponents and the greater good of the league.
He is dangerous. He is devastating. He is at the same time the unstoppable force and the immovable object. He is death to opposing drives. He is a threat to the structural integrity of rims.
On Tuesday night, Davis opened his third - and presumed mega-breakout - season in impressive fashion, turning the Orlando Magic into a collective shell with a 101-84 victory on the Pelicans' fancy new home floor. The Magic are currently in a dark corner of Smoothie King Center, sitting with their heads in their laps, quivering and sobbing, without any earthly understanding of what just happened.
The answer, again, is that Anthony Davis happened.
Davis posted a stat line that has been accomplished just three times since the 1985-86 season (when Basketball-Reference began compiling complete individual game data), with each previous instance coming courtesy of Hakeem Olajuwon. Davis' line: 26 points, 17 rebounds, nine blocks, three steals, and two assists.
Read that again:
26 points. 17 rebounds. Nine blocks. Three steals. Two assists.
That is insane. Even ignoring the steals and assists, the 26-17-9 is a line that has been posted exactly once since 1994, when Dwight Howard did it in 2008-09.
How are the Magic supposed to feel after that? The loss wasn't for lack of trying on their part. Poor Nikola Vucevic tried his darndest, grabbing 23 rebounds of his own, scoring 15 points and blocking four shots. That's an excellent performance, but it went for naught thanks to Davis' otherworldly output. Elfrid Payton had a solid NBA debut, dishing seven assists and carving his way to the rim frequently, but the hapless freshman had his shot blocked five times. Five!
In all, the Pelicans blocked 17 Magic shots, with Omer Asik adding five of his own in his Pelicans debut (he had 14 points and 17 rebounds, to boot).