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Cousins, Davis play first game as Pelicans teammates

I don’t see how two bigs will have an advantage against a team like us, where we really run the floor, we really try to make it a point to shoot as many 3s as possible. If so, Cousins and the Pelicans are right on course.

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“I looked at my thumb and it just swelled up real fast”, he said. With their loss and the Denver Nuggets now trailing the Kings, New Orleans is still just 2.5 back for the West’s No. 8 seed.

The Rockets, who set the National Basketball Association record for three-pointers in a game (24) in a 122-100 victory over the Pelicans in December, made 20 of 51 from beyond the arc. Asked to describe how intense of a competitor he is, Cousins grinned and said, “about 17 technicals worth”, as he referred to his league-leading technical foul total, which has already resulted in a suspension. “My guy can’t catch a break”.

Cousins officially began the next chapter of his career in New Orleans on Wednesday, but he admitted disappointment in “the dishonesty” displayed by the Kings, who earlier said they had no plans to part with him after seven seasons with the team. Cousins finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds, in front of an enthusiastic crowd, which gave the new Pelican a warm welcome to the Smoothie King Center. DeMarcus Cousins was by far the biggest name moved this week and now Dell Demps gets onto the delicate task of tinkering a roster suddenly thin in the back court. Having Cousins will bolster their middling defense and the attention he garners will open up Davis offensively in ways he has never experienced as a professional. Cousins (27 points, 14 rebounds) and Davis (29 points, nine rebounds) combined for 56 points and 23 rebounds, but it wasn’t almost enough to combat an offensive onslaught by the Rockets. “Obviously, we’ve got to get those guys (Cousins & Davis) working in unison…we’ve got to expedite this whole situation”. “We kind of catered to one another instead of just playing our own game”.

Casspi scored 12 points while playing just under 24 minutes.

The blogosphere has been abuzz since reports surfaced Sunday night of Cousins heading to the Pelicans.

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“AD and myself and Jrue, we can do so many things with the ball”, Cousins said. Therefore, how do we know whether they will remain at the peak of their game, whether they will have the impact that Sampson and Olajuwon had, the support that McHale and Parish provided to Bird. It’s just going to be a matter of time.

Takeaways From the DeMarcus Cousins Introductory Press Conference