AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

By Jeff Hall

NEW ORLEANS –

The Warriors displayed that they much deserved the number one seed ranking in the NBA playoffs with complete dominance on both sides of the court in Game 4 of this series with a series sweep with a 109-98 win over the Pelicans

Anthony Davis opened up the scoring in the game with a two point shot in the games first two minutes of action. Both teams came out firing offensively The Pelicans began the game with a small lead, but it was total offensive domination by the Warriors and the early hot hand in scoring of Draymond Green.

Green scored the first seven Warriors points before Stephen Curry put down a 3-point shot.

After the end of the first quarter the Warriors led the Pelicans 31-24, primarily because of the play of Curry and Green. Curry had 14 first quarter points Green had 13. Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with 11 first quarter points.

The first quarter lead allowed Warrior’s Head Coach Steve Kerr to give Curry a rest on the Bench to begin the second quarter.

Green made a lay-up to give the Warriors their largest lead of the first half of ten points with 7:10 remaining in the first half of play. The Pelicans called a much-needed time-out.

After the timeout Eric Gordon had the hot hand shooting for the Pelicans, but the Pelicans had no Answer for the many scoring weapons of the Warriors. Klay Thompson scored 13 points in the second quarter driving the Warriors to their biggest lead of the half and giving them a 13 point first half lead  Curry and Green led the team with 20 first half points to lead the Warriors who shot 57 percent in the first half. For Green the 20 first half points was a season high for first half scoring and leading the Warriors a 67-54 lead at the half.

The Warriors were 9 of 12 from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Warriors continued their strong play in the third quarter and increased their lead and jumped ahead by 23-points their largest lead of the game with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Nothing indicated that the Warriors would blow a 20-point lead

Things did get edgy for the Warriors In the fourth quarter. The Warriors started out sloppy and gave the Pelicans some life when they cut the Warrior’s lead to twelve points going on a 9-0 scoring run with 9 minutes remaining in the fourth.

Anthony Davis ended up with another outstanding performance for the Pelicans scoring 30 points and 11 rebounds. But the strength of Davis was simply not enough to over take the strength of the Warriors team.   Eric Gordon who had a one of his strongest games in the series Davis was the first player in NBA history to score 30 or more points in his first four playoff games he is the first player to do that in forty years.

Stephen Curry did what Stephen Curry does. Curry was 6 of 8 from 3-point range 11-20 from the field and led the game in scoring 39 points.

“We never quit and we have the firepower to make great runs” said Curry about his team’s over-all play in the series.

Curry also noted the play of his teammate Draymond Green. Curry spoke about the play of  Green. “It’s been everything, the way he defended Tyreke Evans, things he did that won’t show up on the stat sheet. He’s done so much, hopefully it continues.” Curry said.

With the win the Warriors clinch a series on the road for the first time since 1987 when the Warriors beat the Utah Jazz (3-0).

Notes:

Up next: The Warriors will wait to take on the winner of the Portland Trailblazer-Memphis Grizzly series.

Golden State’s last sweep in a best-of-seven series came in the 1975 NBA Finals, when they defeated Washington (4-0).