J-Speaks: Mixed Sampling of "Fire & Ice" In The "Big Easy"

Two weeks from this past Thursday, the New Orleans Pelicans made the blockbuster trade of NBA Trading Deadline when they acquired All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins from the Sacramento Kings, along with forward Omri Casspi in exchange for guards Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, and rookie Buddy Hield, as well as a 2017 Top 3 protected first-round pick and a 2017 second-round pick. Teaming Cousins with fellow All-Star Anthony Davis gave the Pelicans the newest version of the twin towers or as Cousins dubbed them early last week “Fire & Ice.” While on paper these looks like a match made in heaven, the question is could it materialize on the court and produce wins for the Pelicans who are trying to make the playoffs? In the small sample size of the new dynamic front court duo, the results have been mixed.

In their debut as the new tandem at home, which was also the Pelicans (24-38) first game following the All-Star break, Cousins filled up the score sheet with 27 points, 13 boards, five assists, five steals and four blocks on 11 for 19 shooting, while Davis had 29 points, nine boards, two steals and two blocks. The Rockets (43-19) won the game going away 129-99.

While Davis and Cousins played well in terms of the numbers they put up, the Pelicans were completely off kilter the entire evening.

They only outscored the Rockets in the paint 50-46; went to the free throw line just two more times than the visitors going 21 for 26, while the Rockets went 19 for 24 and the rebounding margin was even 53-53 and the Rockets had one more offensive board than the Pelicans (12-11).

The Rockets in the first three quarters scored 30, 36 and 34 points and broke the game open thanks to outscoring the Pelicans by 14 (36-22) and by 17 points (34-17) in the middle two quarters. They also shot better from distance than the home team going 20 for 51 from three-point range, while the Pelicans were an abysmal 6 for 31; scored 25 points off 20 Pelican miscues and outscored them on the fast break 34-16.

“No one expected us to win the championship on our first game. We see the potential. We see what we need to work on,” Cousins said after the game. “Houston’s a very good team, a very seasoned team. They have their identity and we’re trying to find ours right now. It’s going to be a process. We’ve got to go in and work our tails off. I think we’ll be fine.”

What made the night even worse is that Casspi, who had 12 points off the bench in his Pelicans debut in 24 minutes broke his right thumb and forget about being sidelined for what was expected to be a month, the team cut him the following day.

Two nights later, Davis led the way with 39 points and 14 rebounds and Cousins had another stat sheet stuffing performance with 12 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and three steals, but the Pelicans lost at the Dallas Mavericks (25-36) 96-83.

Cousins struggled in terms of his shooting that night going just 3 for 9 from the floor and 4 for 8 from the free throw line. Davis despite going 17 for 34 overall from the floor, was just 1 of 4 from three-point range and 4 for 9 from the charity stripe.

“I wasn’t as aggressive as I should have been after I committed the third one,” Cousins said about the foul trouble he concurred during the opening half that took his game rhythm away. “My teammates and coaches were talking to me. I didn’t respond the way I should. I believe I became passive after that.”  

After another solid first quarter where the Pelicans led by six 30-24, the managed just 53 points over the final three periods were outscored by four (23-19), six (20-14) and by nine (29-20) points.

Despite out-rebounding the Mavericks 55-47, outscoring them in the paint 42-24 and on the fast break 18-9 the Pelicans had just nine offensive boards to the Mavericks seven. They again struggled in terms of their team production being outshot percentage wise 46.2 to 39.7; dominated from three-point range as the Mavericks were 12 for 26 from distance and the Pelicans just 5 for 24 and turned the ball over 20 times that led to 22 Mavericks points. Also, the only other Pelican besides Davis and Cousins to strike a match offensively was starting lead guard Jrue Holiday, who had 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but was just 5 for 17 from the field.    

“We’re not going to be able to go anywhere until we solve the turnover thing,” Pelicans’ head coach Alvin Gentry said after the game. “The turnovers were bad decisions. It doesn’t have anything to do with us not coming together. A lot of them were unforced.”

The turnovers were not the issue in Sunday’s loss at the Oklahoma City Thunder (35-27) 118-110, which dropped them to not only 0-3 following the break, but zero wins with Davis and Cousins starting together.

The first issue was the play of MVP candidate Russell Westbrook, who had his 29^th triple-double on the season with 41 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists on 14 for 29 from the field and 11 for 12 at the free throw line.

Davis and Cousins were spectacular offensively scoring 38 and 3 points going 15 for 28 and 8 for 15 from the field respectably, with Cousins garnering a double-double with 10 boards, and Davis had just seven boards.

Unfortunately, the only other Pelican to score in double-figures was E’Twaun Moore, who had 10 points and four steals off the bench.

After leading after the first quarter 35-32, the Pelicans did manage to score 24, 25 and 26 points over the next three quarter, the Thunder had higher outputs with 27, 28 and 31 points over the final three quarters.

The Thunder out-rebounded the Pelicans 63-43, including 16-7 on the offensive glass and outscored them in the paint 56-40.

What made the setback even harder to swallow is that Cousins picked up his 18^th technical foul, which was not rescinded and there for had to serve a one-game suspended.

Even without their newest player, the Pelicans managed to break out of their three-game skid with a solid 109-86 win versus the Detroit Pistons (29-32).

Davis led the way with 33 points and 14 boards going 11 for 17 from the floor and 11 for 11 from the free throw line.

Without Cousins, the Pelicans needed some of rest of the cast to step up and perform and they did, with Dante Cunningham, who started in place of Cousins had 16 points and five rebounds. Holiday had 22 points and five assists on 10 for 18 from the field. Alexis Ajinca came off the bench to produce 10 points, eight boards and three blocks in 19 minutes and Moore had 11 points of the pine as well.

While the Pelicans shot 50 percent from the floor on the night, they held the Pistons to 38.8 percent from the field. They shot well from three-point range going 9 for 25 and held their guest to 3 for 23 from behind the arc.

The Pelicans were out-rebounded 59-58 and to the tune of 23-8 on the offensive glass. Had their 14 turnovers converted into 18 points by the Pistons and only outscored them 48-44 in the paint.

In perhaps their biggest test of their early time together, Davis, Cousins and the Pelicans hosted the No. 2 Seed in the West the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night on ESPN.

The trend of getting off to a good start continued as the Pelicans led after the first period 30-27, but like in the first three games the Pelicans struggled as the game went on and lost a heart breaker to the Spurs (47-13) 101-98 in overtime.

Davis led the Pelicans with 29 points and nine boards, going 14 for 16 from the charity stripe. Cousins, who again battled foul trouble on the night had 19 points, 23 rebounds and four assists. The only other Pelican to score in double-figures was Holiday with 26 points on 12 for 27 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds and five assists.

The defense was a lot better than in team’s first games with Davis and Cousins together as they held the Spurs to 42.1 percent from the floor and held the Spurs to just 6 for 27 from three-point range, but the Pelicans were just 8 for 25 from distance themselves.

The Spurs out-rebounded the Pelicans 64-61 and turned the Pelicans 17 turnovers converted into 17 points.

“We had some costly turnovers, I know I threw one,” Cousins, who was just 7 for 18 from the field, along with Davis said after the loss. “It was just bad execution the down the stretch. They were the better team down the stretch.

This loss versus the Spurs demonstrated how far the Pelicans are from being a championship, let alone just making the playoffs.

Down the stretch, the Spurs found ways to make the necessary plays to get back into the game and take all the momentum from the Pelicans, who are 2-2 against the Spurs this season.

When this blockbuster deal took place prior at the start of last week before the trade deadline, there was excitement in the city of New Orleans and excitement for Cousins, who was finally on a team that had a serious chance of competing to make the playoffs.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” Cousins said at the introductory press conference on Feb. 22. “Everything happened so quickly. Very unexpected, but I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I’m excited for this opportunity. I’m looking forward to it. I plan on embracing my teammates. This team. This organization. This city. This is home for me now. I’m extremely excited, so I’m ready to get to work.”

Davis, who was coming off winning the MVP of the 2016 All-Star Game the weekend with a record setting 52 points prior to the Pelicans making the trade said that when he found out that the Pelicans acquired Cousins, who like Davis played for head coach John Calipari at the University of Kentucky said that, “I was up all night thinking about how far we can go and what we can do on the court together.”.

“Welcome my big brother @boogiecousins to NOLA #FireandIce,” Davis said on his twitter page @AntDavis23 two weeks back.

Both players know that this transition was not going to be an easy one and that with very little practice time and a playoff spot to fight for means that learning how to play with one another on the fly is the name of the game at this moment.

With their loss versus the Spurs on Friday night, the Pelicans are 4 ½ games out of the No. 8 and final playoff spot in the West, which is occupied by the Denver Nuggets (28-33). On top of that, they have the Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves (25-36), Kings (25-36) and Trail Blazers (25-36) to leap frog to reach that final playoff spot.

For the Pelicans going forward they need Davis and Cousins to be on the floor as much as possible and they need to figure out how to work off each other offensively and especialy defensively.

They also need for Cousins to someway, somehow to keep his composure and stay out of foul trouble. When he came over from the Kings, so did the 17 technical fouls he has accumulated so far, this season and his last one got him suspended and since he has been in the lineup, his number have been good, but the team is 0-3.

The other issue that the Pelicans need to rectify is finding consistent scoring from the rest of the squad.

When the Pelicans shipped of Evans, Hield and Galloway in the trade, as well as waive forward Terrence Jones, they said goodbye to 38.2 points per game averaged of the four combined. They also said goodbye two of their top perimeter threats in Hield and Galloway; their best penetrator and offensive creator besides Holiday in Evans and a power forward in Jones who could score down low, rebound, and had a solid touch from the perimeter, even from three-point territory.

The hope was that veteran guard Jarrett Jack could provide some and stability when the team signed to a 10-day contract recently, but suffered a torn ACL in the contest versus the Pistons and his season is basically done.

Which means that the likes of Cunningham, Tim Frazier, Solomon Hill, Moore, and new additions on 10-day contracts themselves Reggie Williams and Hollis Thompson will need to step up and lending a helping hand in the scoring column if the Pelicans have any chance of making the playoffs.

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 2/22/17 3 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump,” with Rachel Nichols, Amin Elhassan, and Tracy McGrady; 2/22/17 11 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Rick Kamla and Greg Anthony; 2/23/17 1 p.m. “NBA Trade Deadline Show,” on NBATV with Matt Winer, Stu Jackson, Sekou Smith and David Aldridge; 2/25/17 1 a.m. edition of “Inside the NBA,” presented by Kia Motors on TNT with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal; www.espn.com/nba/standings; www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/schedule/roster/_/name/no and www.nba.com/games/20170223/HOUNOP#/matchup.