DeMarcus Cousins couldn't be stopped in the Pelicans' 95-82 win over the Grizzlies in New Orleans on Tuesday night.
Cousins went off for 41 points, five threes and 17 rebounds. New Orleans had a 21-to-0 run in the third quarter to take control of the game.
Mike Conley had a team-high 16 points for Memphis. The Grizzlies fell to 40-and-31, putting them a half-game behind the Thunder for the sixth-seed in the Western Conference.
Alvin Gentry said Cousins "had a great night."
“And it’s not like it’s not anything he’s done before," Gentry said. "He probably took his time. The decisions that he made on when to go, baseline or to the middle of the floor…I thought they were all very calculated. We did a good job also of spacing the floor back out and creating driving lanes so that he could drive to the basket.”
“It feels good to finally kind of tear down that wall, as you can say – break out of the shell, whatever the case might be," Cousins said. "At the same time, man, it feels even better to get this win. That’s what it’s about at the end of the day.”
So what led to his big night? “I think my aggressiveness," Cousins said. "Guys have been telling me since I got here to just to go out and be aggressive and be myself. I think I was able to do that tonight.”