All-Star snub? Maybe. But nobody can deny the impact of Anthony Davis in his sophomore season with the New Orleans Pelicans (20-26).
“We’re gonna go as far as he can carry us, and that’s a lot for a 20-year old,” Pelicans Head Coach Monty Williams said after his team’s 88-79 victory over the Chicago Bulls (23-23) Saturday.
Davis has greatly improved his scoring totals since last season, and leads the NBA in blocks per game. This is arguably impressive for a guy that isn’t even old enough to legally buy alcohol yet. But it still wasn’t enough to earn Davis a spot in the NBA All-Star game, despite the event happening in New Orleans this year.
“Every player in the league (wants to) play (in the game), so it’s something that I definitely want to do,” Davis said. “But then again, if it doesn’t happen it’s not the end of the world.”
“My thing is now, okay, you didn’t make that, so let’s look for All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year” said Williams. “If (Davis keeps) playing like that and they still don’t give it to (him), then we’re all gonna have a problem.”
The 2nd-year Forward’s rise may not have been enough to get in the All-Star game, but it’s come at the perfect time for the Pelicans, as they try to turn their season around. 
After losing Ryan Anderson, Jrue Holiday and Jason Smith to injury for an indefinite period of time, the Pels went through a brutal 8 game losing streak last month. However, they’ve since won 5 of their last 7 games heading into tonight’s contest against the San Antonio Spurs (34-13). 
“I think it settled for us that this is our team,” Williams said. “It’s a new team, and it’s basically been our training camp for the last 3 weeks.”
“We just accepted it and realized this might be the team we have for the rest of the season,” said Davis. “We definitely gotta keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last 5 games or so and try to gel together even more so we can go to the next level.”
If that next level means playoffs, they’ll definitely need Davis’ All-Star level of play to stay competitive in a tough Western Conference.