New Orleans — The Pelicans closed-out the regular season Wednesday night with a 24-point win over the Spurs, now riding a 5-game win-streak into the playoffs.
“It’s great,” said Pelicans guard Ian Clark, who had 11 points in the Pels’ win. “It’s what you want to do. You want to be able to go into the post-season rolling and with high energy. We’ve got a lot of guys that have their confidence really high and making shots. But I think most of all, especially tonight, we showed what we could do on the defensive end if we lock in.”
“Any game we go into, we expect to win,” said Pelicans forward Anthony Davis, who finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds. “Of course it doesn’t always happen that way but that’s our mindset. To finish the season off strong, especially after we lost 4 in a row, you know we came back and responded really well.”
“I just think it’s a group that really believes in themselves and believe in each other,” said Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “No one pulls harder for the guys then the guy on the bench that plays the position that’s out there. They really pull for each other and I think you can see it’s really good chemistry and a team that’s really united.”
The first round of the playoffs gets rolling this weekend, where the Pelicans will take-on the Portland Trail Blazers in a best-of-7 series. The first two games will be at Portland, followed by the next two back in New Orleans. After that it alternates locations for the final 3 as necessary.