The New Orleans Pelicans (1-3) had a strong showing Tuesday night thanks to DeMarcus Cousins coming up big with the absence of Anthony Davis. However, the Portland Trailblazers (3-1) held serve at home with a 103-93 victory.
According to Pelicans sideline reporter Jen Hale, Davis had injured his knee during pre-game warmups but still went out to start the ballgame. During the first quarter, he wound up knocking knees with Damian Lillard and did not return for the rest of the ballgame.
The Trail Blazers took advantage of the Pelicans being without one of their star players, getting out to a 29-19 lead thanks to a 16-1 run in the final minutes of the first quarter.
If anything you have to give credit to the Pelicans for staying in the game with a strong second quarter, getting out to a 48-47 lead at halftime thanks to a strong second quarter from Jameer Nelson and E’Twaun Moore both putting up six points.
Cousins came out of the locker room in the second half like a bull through a china shop with 18 points in the third quarter to keep a two-point lead over the Blazers. However, it wasn’t enough as Portland fought back in the fourth quarter thanks to a strong finish from CJ McCollum with 16 points.
The Pelcians will return to action on Thursday against the Sacramento Kings (1-3) with tipoff set for 9:30 pm.
Three Point Play:
Injury Update: Head coach Alvin Gentry during his postgame interview mentioned that Davis underwent an MRI scan inside the Moda Center on his knee and thankfully, the results came back negative but will find out more details on Thursday.
If it’s nothing major, that could be a big break for a team that desperately needs their second star to be in the rotation to make “the twin towers” work. This will be something to keep an eye on in the next 24-to-48 hours with a big game in Sacramento coming up.
Sloppy Game All Around: This was a sloppy game on both sides of the court with 36 turnovers between two teams and the low final score showed just that. Look at the previous two games the Pelicans had and you’ll see that they ended up being in the 130-point range. The sloppy play on the court seemed to benefit the Pelicans for a while, but only having one star player hurt this team.
Offense Needs More Than Cousins: Through four games, it’s become clear that this team needs more than just Boogie to get more wins. Davis wasn’t his typical self and that hurt the offense all evening.
It’s kind of frustrating to see only three players in double figures and Cousins needs to see more out of players like Cunningham. Jrue Holiday has started to look a little better, but if Davis winds up being out for a significant period of time during the season, there’s no way that just Cousins, Holiday, and maybe Jameer Nelson is getting Ws.
-Clint Domingue