Metairie, La.– The Pelicans’ 4th-straight win– beating the 2nd best team in the Western Conference, Anthony Davis’s 24th double-double of the season and DeMarcus Cousins getting his third triple-double of the season was all a side note to the devastating news that Cousins will miss the rest of the season.
With 14 seconds to play, Cousins came-up limping after going after the rebound off his missed free throw. He immediately went to the ground and was helped-off the court and taken to the locker room. As the team finished-out the game to beat the Rockets by 2 points, news quickly broke that Boogie suffered a left Achilles injury and it was later reported that he would miss the rest of the season. He got an MRI right after he left the arena, which confirmed the ruptured Achilles. There is no timetable yet on his recovery.
“There’s a sadness for DeMarcus,” said Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “He’s worked extremely hard to be where he is right now. To me he was having as good a year as anybody in the league. I think for what he had brought to our team and what we were trying to get done, I think the guys feel really bad for him.”
“He’s in as good of a spirits as he can be in possibly right now in this situation not even 24 hours,” said Pelicans guard Rajon Rondo. “It’s going to be an emotional time for him but he has us. He has his family around him so it’s most important to just keep positive energy around him and keep pushing and get better.”
The Pelicans had seemed to found their groove the past week, and are currently in 6th place in the Western Conference standings. Right in the hunt for the playoffs, it appeared Cousins would finally be making his first trip to the post-season in his NBA career.
“All he wants to do is be in the playoffs,” Gentry said. “He wants to experience that. Obviously he was on his way to doing that and being an integral part of that. He was pretty torn-up last night.”
As for the state of the team moving forward, they obviously need other players to chip-in to make-up for the 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists Cousins was averaging this season.
“Jrue’s playing well, E’Twaun, Darius,” said Pelicans forward Anthony Davis. “Everybody’s playing well so we’ve just got to carry that over to the rest of the season. Of course missing one of our main guys is tough, but it just means guys have got to step up.”
“We have to set that aside and get back on track and understand that we have a lot of work to do,” Gentry said. “But everything that we set-out to do this year is still in front of us.”
“Last night (Cousins) had a triple double and it looked easy,” said Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday. “People are going to have to step-up and take more of a load and again, it starts tomorrow.”
The Pelicans (27-21) return to action Sunday when they host the Clippers at 3:00 p.m.
