The New Orleans Pelicans’ trade for DeMarcus Cousins this week changed the face of the franchise, bringing in another star to join Anthony Davis and immediately raising the ceiling on a team that previously looked to have only an outside chance of grabbing the West’s final playoff spot this season. The success might not come immediately for New Orleans, but a franchise that previously had to consider trading Davis before he becomes a free agent can now focus on proving to Cousins that he can be part of an all-time great big man tandem. It’s a possibility worth getting excited about.

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Cousins’s first game with the Pelicans on Thursday night against the Houston Rockets was therefore something of an event. The Smoothie King Center welcomed the team’s new star with open arms and a great deal of anticipation, not least because the Pelicans came into the night with just 25 games to jump several teams into a playoff berth. Here it was — the dawn of a new age.

It started well enough — Cousins threw some gorgeous passes to the perimeter from the post and made three of his first four shots, the crowd cheered his every positive play, and he didn’t seem so out of place with Davis to suggest that the Pelicans had made a huge mistake. The excitement appeared warranted, albeit directed towards a start rather than a finished product.

Then, as the game went along, it became increasingly apparent that all the good cheer was not enough to keep the Pelicans from getting run off the court. The Rockets out-scored the hosts by a combined 31 points in the second and third quarters to coast to a thorough 129-99 win.

It’s clear that the arrival of Cousins will not solve all the Pelicans’ issues. They turned it over 20 times (12 in the first half), shot 6-of-31 (19.4 percent) on 3-pointers, and allowed the Rockets virtually any shot they wanted. That last bit isn’t an exaggeration — Houston took all of three shots that weren’t outside the 3-point line or in the paint:

It might have been an outlier — the Pelicans boast a top-10 defense — but the results were not good. The problem did not appear to rest with Cousins and Davis, who looked just fine as a dynamic duo inside. Davis followed up his All-Star Game MVP performance with 29 points and 10 rebounds (plus two blocks and two steals) and looked comfortable on several high-low possessions with Cousins.

But Cousins was the clear draw of Thursday’s game, and he proved that his high-usage style can absolutely transfer to New Orleans. He put up an efficient 27 points (11-of-19 FG) and finished just one block shy of a 5×5 (14 rebounds, five assists, five steals, four blocks) with one turnover. It’s clear that he is not fully comfortable with the Pelicans’ attack, but there’s no reason to think he won’t adjust.

The issue is what everyone else does. Point guard Jrue Holiday struggled mightily, shooting 3-of-12 and committing seven turnovers in a performance that will not inspire much confidence.

No one else looked especially good, either, underscoring how the Pelicans were hurting for useful role players even before trading away Tyreke Evans and Buddy Hield for Cousins. And while it was good to see new addition Omri Casspi make two threes, New Orleans got very bad news after the game when it was revealed he had suffered a broken right thumb:

The Pelicans will have much better games than this one, and Cousins’s excellent numbers provide a great deal of hope even after a 30-point blowout. Nevertheless, this is clearly a work in progress.

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It was different story for the Rockets, who saw their new acquisition Lou Williams debut with flair and success.

Williams scored 27 points on seven 3-pointers to lead a 79-point outburst by the Houston bench. With fellow Sixth Man of the Year candidate Eric Gordon alongside him, Williams will ensure that the Rockets’ opponents never get to rest at the defensive end.

The lesson of Thursday night is a familiar one — it’s much easier to integrate a new player when he’s not being asked to raise your ceiling several levels. Still, both the Pelicans and Rockets should be happy with how their new players performed, even if only the latter can be truly confident in the future.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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