Walker: Pelicans suddenly 'one of the scariest teams in the NBA' - The Advocate

The Smoothie King Center hadn't rocked like this since 2015.

From the time Irma Thomas belted out the words "O say, can you see" until the final buzzer when the scoreboard read Pelicans 119, Trail Blazers 102, this night was all Pelicans.

Unlike three years ago in Game 3 in the Smoothie King Center, there was no Steph Curry 3-pointer from the corner to ruin it.

Nothing was going to ruin this night.

The fans showed up -- an announced crowd of 18,551. And so did the Pelicans. 

"It was loud pretty much the whole game," Jrue Holiday said. "That's what we expected and then some. It was awesome to come home and feel like they were part of this win."

It was red. It was loud. It was decisive.

Now, it looks like the Pelicans may be doing the sweeping instead of getting swept.

For the third time in six nights, the Portland Trail Blazers had no answer for the Pelicans. Heck, Alvin Gentry could have let his players stay on the court at halftime to watch Mannie Fresh perform.

This one was basically over by then as the Pelicans had built a commanding 64-45 lead.

And with that comes a commanding 3-0 series lead as well.

A year ago, none of this would've been possible.

No team in NBA history has ever blown a 3-0 lead, and nothing about the first three games of this series suggests that piece of trivia will change this year.

The Pelicans can (and likely will) finish off the Blazers on Saturday, earn their first sweep in franchise history and head to the second round of the playoffs for just the second time and first time since 2008.

It was the Pelicans, not the backs-against-the-wall Blazers, who played this one as if their season was on the line.

"We played with the right edge, with the right mindset with a chip on our shoulders as if we were down 0-2," said Rajon Rondo. 

The only difference in this one and the first two games of the series was that the venue changed and the noisy crowd dressed in red T-shirts were Pelicans fans, who proved to be just as rowdy as their counterparts in the Moda Center.

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Oh, and there was one other difference: DeMarcus Cousins was back in the Smoothie King Center for the first time since rupturing his Achilles tendon on January 26.

The crowd filled the arena with chants of "Boo-gie, Boo-gie" when he was shown on the video board in the fourth quarter. 

Cousins cheered from the bench for a team that many wrote the obituary on when he went down. 

Instead, that team has all of a sudden become one of the scariest teams in the NBA.

It was a buildup three years in the making.

Anthony Davis, who got "MVP" chants as soon as he was introduced and then went out and showed why he deserved them, had 28 points and 11 rebounds.

The beardless Nikola Mirotic continued to go off since shaving his beard, erupting for 14 first-quarter points and finishing with a game-high 30.

Rajon Rondo, who appears to be getting annoyed with all the questions about "Playoff Rondo," continues to be just that, winning his fifth consecutive playoff game dating back to last season with the Bulls.

Jrue Holiday continues to give the Portland backcourt fits. C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard likely will be seeing Holiday in their sleep when their season comes to an end, likely on Saturday.

The hottest team in the NBA, their winning streak now at a league-best eight, is getting even hotter.

It looks like the Pelicans very well could see the Golden State Warriors again, just like in 2015, this time in Round 2.

But this Pelicans team is much different from that one three years ago. 

This team, like their fans in their red Do It Bigger t-shirts Thursday night, is hot. 

Just ask the Trail Blazers.

The quicker the Pelicans take care of Portland, the better their chances are in the second round of the NBA Playoffs.

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Follow Rod Walker on Twitter, @rwalkeradvocate.

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