The New Orleans Pelicans played very good defensive basketball for stretches of Game 2 on Monday.
They allowed 17 points in the first quarter and 16 in the third, limiting the league's second-best offense to 71 points over three quarters and holding it to 42.9 percent shooting and a 7-of-23 mark from outside.
Unfortunately, not even very good defense can slow the Golden State Warriors' offensive machine for 48 minutes. Eventually, they'll start doing Warriors things, a true basketball inevitability, one on display in a 38-point second quarter and in the game's closing frame.
After a hot start to the fourth quarter, the Warriors punctuated an 8-2 run with a terrific transition two-on-one, with Draymond Green finding Andre Iguodala for the spectacular alley-oop.
This is where we'd normally say there's no stopping the Warriors, especially on the fast break, but that would do a singularly terrific Dante Cunningham effort from earlier in the frame a disservice.
