Pelicans take care of business in back-to-back

The argument can certainly be made that the Dallas Mavericks and the Chicago Bulls are the two worse teams in the NBA, with all due apologies to the Sacramento Kings and New Jersey Nets.

Yes, the Pelicans beat a pair of bad teams and also beat a bad team in Sacramento.

That said, it was a good showing and result by New Orleans on the road in Dallas and Chicago.

In the NBA, it is difficult to win on the road. It is even more difficult to win back-to-back games on the road in consecutive nights.

It was not a beauty contest in Chicago Saturday night but that does not matter.

Few teams produce masterpieces in the second of back-to-back games.

The Pelicans were clearly the better team but failed to put the Bulls away, allowing Chicago to rally and even take the lead late in the fourth quarter. New Orleans got it back to even and had a chance to win it.

Apparently, Alvin Gentry drew up an isolation play for Jrue Holiday, who took a step-back jumper and barely grazed iron.

In overtime, it was the Anthony Davis and Demarcus Cousins show. Cousins was nearly invisible for three quarters before awakening to score 17 of his 25 points in the final frame and in overtime. Davis had 27 points and 16 rebounds. Cousins added 11 rebounds and four assists while Davis had three blocks.

If the season ended today, these would be two of the top five players in the league. That is how good they have been, which perhaps indicates how the rest of the Pelicans team has been.

Once again, Holiday came up short. With his huge contract in hand, Holiday has come nowhere near playing up to the level of his payment, thus far.

He was 5-of-15 from the field, missed all 3-point attempts, had six assists, five rebounds and three turnovers in 41 minutes. He was outplayed by his brother, Justin, who plays for substantially less. Justin Holiday had 18 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Does anyone really believe Holiday was or is worth the deal? Does anyone believe that he will be an outstanding shooting guard?

It was good to see Darius Miller put up a second consecutive productive game off the bench as he went for 11 points in 28 minutes, including three triples. In the two games on the trip thus far, Miller is 6-for-11 from 3-point range. The league-worst bench was finally productive overall as veteran Jameer Nelson put in 13 points and had five assists as he played 35 minutes.

New Orleans won despite shooting just 40 percent from the field and 29 percent from 3-point range while losing the battle on the boards 58-52. Once again, the big two saved the big picture.

How many times can and will that happen this season? Playing the second of back-to-back games, Cousins played 43 minutes while Davis played 41. That pace cannot continue.

The trip continues at an improved Indiana team Tuesday night before concluding at Toronto Thursday night. The Pacers are 5-4 with new acquisitions Victor Oladipo and Damontas Sabonis playing well, along with New Orleans native Thaddeus Young.

Once again, the Pelicans will have a chance to climb above .500 for the first time since the 2014-15 season when Monty Williams was the head coach.

Looking for any additional impact, Josh Smith has been invisible thus far, registering two points in five games in just 12 minutes played. The Pelicans released Jordan Crawford to bring in Smith. Crawford is a streak shooter and scorer who gave the team some punch off the bench. Rajon Rondo is likely a couple of weeks away from returning to make his debut. It will be intriguing to see what his level of play will be.

While the warts are still obvious and the holes are still somewhat sizeable, kudos to Alvin Gentry and his team for taking care of business on back-to-back nights. It is all about results, not style or cosmetic appearance.