1) New Orleans delivered in crunch time, holding off a fourth-quarter Detroit rally for a 112-109 win Monday.
2) DeMarcus Cousins scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to help key the win, then spoke to Jen Hale in a postgame TV interview.
3) Anthony Davis sustained an ankle injury that forced him to exit the game in the second half. He had already scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. His status is to be determined; the Pelicans will practice in Metairie today. Check Pelicans.com for updates on Davis’ status.
4) New Orleans, which is currently in eighth place in the Western Conference, travels to Memphis today and will visit the Grizzlies (12-27) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
5) In national power rankings posted by websites yesterday, the Pelicans topped out at No. 15 on NBA.com’s list. John Schuhmann noted that defensive struggles have greatly hampered New Orleans recently, but “fortunately, they don’t play another top-10 offense until Jan. 26 and have five games against bottom-10 offenses between now and then.” The Pelicans were ranked No. 16 by CBSSports.com, No. 17 by ESPN.com and No. 18 on SI.com.