NBA Power Rankings: Pelicans Slide With Cousins Down

The NBA released its weekly Power Rankings via ESPN today and the New Orleans Pelicans slid with the loss of DeMarcus Cousins.

Last week the Pelicans garnered one of their most impressive home victories to date, they defeated the Houston Rockets 115-113. However, in doing so they suffered a catastrophic loss when DeMarcus Cousins tore his left Achilles and just like that his season was over.

Despite the team going 3-1 last week, the loss of Boogie dropped the Pels two spots. They're 27-22 overall and are still in decent playoff position but this teams metal will be tested without Cousins for the remainder of the season.

This week they'll play three games:

• Tuesday: vs. Sacramento Kings
• Friday: @ Oklahoma City Thunder
• Saturday: @ Minnesota Timberwolves

Only three games this week and there is a good chunk of time off between their game Tuesday and game on Friday. The Pels finish the week with two away games, back-to-back, and against two quality opponents in the Western Conference. The team needs to rally around each other with the Boogie injury and find a way for everybody to raise their level of play.

The next question is, does the team make a move to acquire another piece to make up for the loss of Cousins?

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