When the New Orleans Pelicans made the trade that brought DeMarcus Cousins to them at the deadline, the majority of talk around the league quickly turned to how they’d matchup against either Golden State or San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs.
Not so fast.
There were losses in six of the first eight games of the Cousins/Anthony Davis era. That put them in such a hole that they arrived in Denver on Sunday five games behind the Nuggets for the eighth spot. And that is after the Pelicans had won five of their last seven.