For the first time in his career, New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis was playing with a teammate in the NBA All-Star game. The twin towers pair consisting of him and DeMarcus Cousins would terrorize Team Curry. But as we all know, Cousins suffered a season-ending ruptured Achilles injury. He would not only miss the All-Star game but also the Pelicans' push for the playoffs after the All-Star break. Since Cousins went down, the team has gone a respectable 4-5 record. Anthony Davis has looked like a dominant monster and Jrue Holiday has been forced to elevate his level of play.

Six games after Cousins went down, the Pelicans had lost five of them. They bounced back with three wins over lottery teams, but that is not too much of an encouraging sight. It is clear everybody needs to figure out their new role. Or as Davis said, the team needs to find their “groove”. Speaking to Michael Lee from Yahoo! Sports, Davis said:

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“We’re trying to find our groove again. A lot of guys are playing out of position. I’m playing a lot more five now. We’re asking a lot from everybody and we just have to step up as a team and find a way to win.”

Cousins' exit left the Pelicans short-handed at the center position. With the team acquiring forward Nikola Mirotic in a trade with the Chicago Bulls, Davis has been playing most of his time at center, with Mirotic getting his heavy load at power forward. But the now five-time All-Star does nothing but encourage his team to keep fighting:

“I just tell them, ‘Keep playing. Keep fighting. Keep believing in each other. Right now is not the time to separate. We’ve got to stay together.’ We’ve got a lot of games left. Nobody is really taking off, fourth [seed] through 10th. We’re going to always stay in the fight, as long as we keep giving ourselves a chance. We’ve got to play hard and keep having fun.”