Down two games to none in a series nobody expects his team to win, the game still inside him, New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis needed to know why it didn't work. Less than 30 minutes after his team's maddening five-point loss, he stood towering over a fold-up, fiberboard elementary-school cafeteria table in a corner of the visiting locker room in Oakland's Oracle Arena. On a laptop in front of him, a play happened, over and over. He watched, he clicked, he watched again, as if repetition could produce a different result.
It was just one botched play in a game filled with the NBA's typical mash of exquisite execution, bungled opportunities and accidental successes, but Davis was determined to find an answer.