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Pelicans top Warriors, vault into West's 8th seed

Apr 8, 2015 - 4:46 AM New Orleans, LA (SportsNetwork.com) - A recent surge has the New Orleans Pelicans back in the Western Conference playoff hunt.

A controversial call and a friendly rim helped them leap past the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.

Tyreke Evans split a pair of go-ahead free throws with 17 seconds left and the Pelicans hung on for a 103-100 win over the Golden State Warriors to vault them into the eighth seed in the West.

New Orleans headed into Tuesday's contest with the Warriors a half game behind Oklahoma City for the final playoff spot in the West, but the Thunder were blown out by San Antonio.

The Pelicans haven't made the postseason since 2011. They have five games left and own the tiebreaker over OKC.

"We look at ourselves as an elite team. We feel like we can play with anybody and we can beat anybody on any given night," the Pelicans' Anthony Davis said.

Evans attempted a crossover at half court and appeared to trip over his own feet, but a flabbergasted Andre Iguodala was assessed with a foul.

Stephen Curry's floater in the paint at the other end didn't drop and Davis sunk a pair of foul shots for the three-point cushion.

Curry's right wing 3-pointer at the buzzer rattled in and out. He initially tried to draw a foul on Dante Cunningham, pump faking and leaning into him. No foul was called, however. Curry momentarily lost control of the ball before regaining it, but missed the trey at the horn.

"I thought I drew the foul on the pump fake because he kind of came to me and I got contact," Curry said. "The ball dropped and there was obviously no whistle. I got it right back and I had pretty clean look after that."

Evans finished with 12 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals, while Davis added 29 points, 10 boards and four blocks for the Pelicans, who have won five of their last six games.

Curry posted 25 points, nine assists and six rebounds and Draymond Green supplied 24 points and 14 boards for Golden State, which has dropped two straight on the heels of a 12-game winning streak.

Klay Thompson was limited to seven points on 2-of-10 shooting in defeat.

Curry capped a 13-2 run with a layup to turn an eight-point deficit into a 95-92 advantage with 3:04 left.

New Orleans, however, ripped off the next eight points. Quincy Pondexter started the spurt with a 3-pointer, Davis had a three-point play during it and Cunningham connected on a free throw for a 100-95 Pelicans margin with 1:12 on the clock.

Green drove in for a layup and after Davis missed a jumper, and Curry knotted the contest at 100-100 with 35.6 ticks on the clock with a step-back trSeattl 19 - vs. Seattle, 8:05 PM 20 - vs. Seattle, 3:05 PM 22 - at Oakland, 10:05 PM 23 - at Oakland, 10:05 PM 24 - at Oakland, 3:35 PM 25 - at Houston, 8:10 PM 26 - at Houston, 7:10 PM 27 - at Houston, 2:10 PM 28 - vs. Detroit, 8:05 PM 29 - vs. Detroit, 8:05 PM 30 - vs. Detroit, 3:05 PM

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1 - vs. LA Angels, 8:05 PM 2 - vs. LA Angels, 8:05 PM 3 - vs. LA Angels, 8:05 PM 4 - vs. LA Angels, 3:05 PM