Remember, way back at the beginning of the season, when Justin Holiday was outscoring Jrue Holiday? Those were fun times. I think I even officially declared him the better brother. He was chucking up a storm, while Jrue was was slow out of the gate.
Eventually, the Bulls decided that they didn’t really like Justin taking any shot that he wanted, and Jrue got back to his old self with some big games. Now, the gap between them grows even wider. Jrue is notching career-highs while completing sweeps of favored teams, and Justin is watching alone at home on a ratty 70’s-yellow couch surrounded by Taco Bell wrappers. Actually, who has it better? I know whose shoes I’d rather be in.
And I’d also rather that Justin was the one scoring these 41 points. Because you know it would just be a bunch of threes, and there wouldn’t be any assists cluttering things up, and there wouldn’t be any slow-ass replays because no one cares about him. With Jrue, he has a well-rounded game, scores in a lot of ways, and thus, this vid is over five minutes long. Way too long. That’s Jokic territory, and it’s not like I tried to bloat it out. It just happened.
The Pelicans needed all of Jrue’s and Anthony Davis’ points to squeak out the win, but the managed it, and now they’re moving on to the second round. I’ve spent most of the last few years claiming that New Orleans is a darkhorse candidate for the Conference Finals, but not this year. Dammit. How is this not-as-good-on-paper-as-previous-year’s-squads squad doing so well?
Three words. Patrick Ewing effect.