Anthony Davis Had One of the Greatest Games Ever and the Pelicans Lost, As Usual

Anthony Davis had one of the most spectacular stat lines in NBA history on Wednesday night and the New Orleans Pelicans still lost to the Denver Nuggets, 107-102. Davis finished with 50 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 steals and 4 blocks. Here’s the list of players who have done 50/15/5 or better since 1983.

And Davis threw in 7 steals and 4 blocks. Those are some amazing lines. And only Jordan won the game. What a cruel sport.

But you don’t need to remind Anthony Davis of that. The Unibrow was kind of forgotten last season. Davis’ numbers went down just a tad, but were still pretty great (24.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 2 blocks, 1.3 steals). Still, he didn’t take the MVP caliber leap that people were expecting. Plus, he missed a quarter of the season due to various injuries. That’s proven a theme.

Davis has played 4 seasons and has never played more than 68 games in any of them. Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns, a fellow Kentucky product, won Rookie of the Year and started all 82 games. He officially stole all of the Anthony Davis hype last season. It’s much more fun to pay attention to a guy who, you know, plays.

And the Timberwolves only won one less game than the Pelicans. That’s the real problem. No matter how good Davis is – and he’s very good – his team sucks. The Pelicans went from 45 wins in 2014-2015 to 30 wins in 2015-2016.

Last night was a reminder of what Anthony Davis can be when he’s healthy. He dropped one of the most absurd stat lines in NBA history and his team still lost. It wasn’t even first time this has happened. And it probably won’t be the last.

Luckily, he’s only 23. So while the Hornets will continue to be awful, they aren’t technically wasting his prime yet. Even if he remains in New Orleans for the entirety of his 5-year contract extension, there should still be time to go elsewhere and win. Wouldn’t that be fun? For him at least. Not for the rest of the league.