After Cousins Injury, Anthony Davis Enters MVP Convo with 'Westbrook Mentality'

With the New Orleans Pelicans trailing the downward-spiraling Phoenix Suns by 15 points early in the second quarter on Feb. 26, Jrue Holiday found Darius Miller running free on the perimeter. After kicking the sharpshooter the ball, he and the rest of his teammates watched the ball clang off the rim into a painted area containing four Suns players. 

Just one problem for the Suns: Anthony Davis also occupied the paint. 

Davis boxed out Dragan Bender, collected the rebound with his left hand, gathered himself and rose for a brawny finish, drawing contact before completing an old-fashioned three-point play. The put-back was one of his eight offensive rebounds that night—the Pelicans as a team had nine—but that notable statistic paled in comparison to his final line.

When the buzzer sounded in New Orleans' Smoothie King Center, cementing a come-from-behind 125-116 victory, Davis had racked up an absurd 53 points, 18 rebounds, three assists, one steal and five blocks. He shot 16-of-29 from the field.  He turned the ball over just once. It was a hallucinatory box score most players wouldn't sniff in the Drew League. 

Yet for Davis, these nights of insane production and efficiency have become routine. 

When DeMarcus Cousins pulled up lame after chasing an offensive board against the Houston Rockets on Jan. 26, the Pelicans were supposed to be done. Finished. Kaput. Toast. Even with Nikola Mirotic joining the fray, Miller proving himself a capable long-range marksman and Holiday beginning to re-emerge as an upper-tier point guard, New Orleans was far too dependent on the fire-and-ice combination. Boogie and the Brow meant too much to this organization. 

Before Cousins' injury, the Pelicans had outscored the opposition by 5.0 points per 100 possessions with Davis on the court and Cousins riding the pine, per PBPStats.com. In other words, the Pels could consider themselves amongst the morass of playoff hopefuls in the Western Conference, but by no means locks.  

What few realized was how much better Davis could perform. 

Since Cousins was shelved for the remainder of the season, the 24-year-old has dropped 43 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He's exploded for 44 points, 17 boards, two assists, six steals and three blocks in a victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Then came back-to-back outings in which he topped the 40-point barrier and earned monstrous double-doubles.

"When he goes down, it goes back to [Anthony Davis] before DeMarcus," Davis told The Jump's Rachel Nichols. "A lot of minutes; the weight of the world on your shoulders. You have to carry the team on your back [and] you have to almost get 40 every night to give us a chance to win."

"It's tough," he continued. "You kind of have to have that Russell Westbrook mentality. When [Kevin Durant] went out...Russ just went out there and played. He shot 40 shots sometimes; whatever it takes to help your team win. We're kind of taking that approach."

Adopting that mindset sure seems to be working.

In possession of the Westbrook mentality, Davis has averaged 33.9 points, 13.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.6 blocks per game for what's become the one-man-show Pelicans. He's turning the ball over just 2.7 times per contest while shooting 50.0 percent from the field, 34.9 percent from downtown and 81.7 percent at the stripe (on a whopping 9.6 trips per outing).

More importantly, New Orleans has reeled off six consecutive victories after going just 1-5 in the first half-dozen contests post-Boogie. And when Davis has been on the floor during the win streak, it's outscoring opponents by 11.0 points per 100 possessions, per PBPStats.com. 

MVP Buzz?

All of a sudden, a bit of MVP buzz is blossoming by the bayou. New Orleans head coach Alvin Gentry is subscribing, as relayed by NOLA.com's Jeff Duncan:

"It's tough to be the MVP in the league when you're in the middle of the pack. If we had 40 wins right now, I think he [Davis] would definitely be in the conversation. But if they don't notice what this guy is doing...because there is nobody else in the league coming close. And [Denver Nuggets head coach] Mike Malone can talk about [Nikola] Jokic all he wants. It's not even close."

To be clear, Davis is not going to win the league's preeminent individual award. Not this year, at least.

James Harden remains head and shoulders (and beard) above the pack, while plenty more big-name stars are having praiseworthy seasons. In fact, Basketball-Reference.com's NBA MVP Award Tracker still gives the Pelicans' combo big just a 2.4 percent chance at the trophy behind Giannis Antetokounmpo (2.7 percent), LeBron James (3.5 percent), Kevin Durant (4.5 percent), Chris Paul (7.7 percent), Stephen Curry (8.6 percent) and Harden (67.0 percent). 

Dylan Buell/Getty Images

But earning MVP isn't the real goal here. Making the playoffs is. Whatever it takes to convince Cousins he should stick around after his rehabilitation. And if you get to the playoffs with the league's most productive player, you have a real chance of advancing. 

Beyond the Rockets and Golden State Warriors, the Western Conference remains a free-for-all. Just 5.5 games separate the current No. 3 seed from No. 10, which means two deserving teams will be left watching the postseason's opening round from the dissatisfying comfort of their couches. And in reality, the competition is even stiffer than the standings initially indicate. 

The No. 3 Minnesota Timberwolves just lost Jimmy Butler for months to a meniscus injury. The No. 4 San Antonio Spurs are still working without Kawhi Leonard, and no one is quite sure when he'll return (though a late-March comeback, per ESPN.com's Michael C. Wright and Adrian Wojnarowski, is now potentially in the cards).

With injuries plaguing the teams boasting the best records of the bunch, the Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz all have legitimate opportunities to climb into bronze-medal position in the NBA's tougher half. 

Of course, they also have a chance to fall out of the picture entirely. Two of them will, but in pickles like this, you typically want to put your money on the best player. 

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

The Jazz are led, depending on the night, by either Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell or Joe Ingles. Lou Williams remains the Clippers' premier player after staying put at the trade deadline. Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Nikola Jokic, LaMarcus Aldridge and Karl-Anthony Towns are all impressive contributors operating at variously lofty levels, but none of them can match Davis' current output.

Will the Brow alone be enough to keep the Pelicans' streak alive and earn home-court advantage in the playoffs' first set of matchups? That's a tough ask, especially with 15 of 22 remaining games coming against squads still in the playoff hunt. 

But Davis has proved adept at simultaneously staving off four foes and completing a second-chance play. Now, he gets to show he can hold off the impassioned charges of the other Western Conference playoff hopefuls and, at the very least, ensure the Pelicans get back into the postseason for the first time since 2015.

Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09. 

Unless otherwise indicated, all stats from Basketball Reference, NBA.com, NBA Math or ESPN.com and are current heading into games on February 26.