I didn’t expect the New Orleans Pelicans to beat San Antonio last Wednesday, not with the Spurs having something substantial to play for, and not with the way the Spurs had handled teams over their past month-plus of play.

It stands as one of the best performances in Pelicans history, and the reward it yields the team’s fans is substantial: a chance to watch arguably the two best players in basketball this season square off for four to seven games. Anthony Davis and the Warriors’ Stephen Curry combined for nearly 70 points on 58 percent shooting Saturday night, and that was in a game Davis hardly seemed himself for much of the first three quarters.

To me, this series represents a chance to appreciate true greatness on the basketball floor versus a traditional fan viewpoint of “our team must win at all costs!” It would be great to see the Pels pull off a miracle; and that’s what it would be, as the 67-win Warriors turned in one of the most impressive regular seasons of all time and are equally dangerous offensively and defensively, and the Pelicans are still in the early stages of building their program into a winner.

But if you’re more of a casual Pelicans viewer that checks in for the postseason, you may not believe your eyes when you see Davis play. He makes everything look so easy, as if a teammate could just casually flip the ball toward the rim 10 out of 10 trips and wait for him to stuff it in. Davis is a near 7-footer who handles the ball proficiently and sticks long range jumpers, while also leading the league in shotblocking and consuming every available rebound. He’s an alien life form, a guy whose player efficiency rating this season of 30.9 was legitimately historic: Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James are the only other players to record a number as high in a single season.

Davis deserves major MVP consideration. But his star counterpart this series, Curry, will likely take the award, and for good reason: there’s never been another player quite like this guy, either.

I don’t think anyone has ever been as good as Curry is at pulling up for 3 off the dribble, and it’s the lynchpin of a virtually unstoppable offensive attack. Drop your big men back into the paint, and it’s Curry casually dribbling around a screen and sinking 3’s at a 44 percent clip. Trap him, and watch a team of great shooters and passers generate a wide open look, 4 on 3.

Curry takes more than 8 3-pointers a game, and shot 48 percent from the field this season. That’s both absurd and terrifying, probably not in that order.

I think a successful series for the Pelicans would be to steal two games in New Orleans before bowing out with a slew of postseason lessons learned against one of the toughest foes they’ll ever face. It should be a fun ride, regardless, on the way there.

Some other thoughts after early round one action:

Tony Parker’s ankle is the story in the West. He played after rolling it in Game One against the Clippers, but San Antonio won’t make it past L.A. if he’s hampered.

With Parker, the Spurs may be the one team that can match the Warriors, peak vs. peak.

The Hawks have a tremendous opportunity before them … but, like San Antonio, they must get healthy. Cleveland and Chicago should match up in round two and those teams will brutalize one another. Atlanta is hampered with injuries to Paul Millsap and Al Horford, who are each playing but could be less effective. They won’t lose to Brooklyn and probably won’t to Washington or Toronto in Round Two, giving them time to heal.

After watching the Davis/Curry show, take some time to watch Kyrie Irving throw down in Cleveland. LeBron James is still a sight to behold, but Irving’s metamorphosis from “clearly talented but overrated volume scorer” to “legitimate elite player” has been one of the stories of this season.

When Irving gets rolling, nobody is more fun to watch, and he has turned in single-game performances of 57 and 55 points this season — and not against chumps, but San Antonio and Portland, respectively. Chances are we’ll see at least one “he did what?” performance out of him before we’re through in June.