NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Pelicans, victimized by freak injuries and even more freakish play for much of the last three seasons, have spent a lot of time rolling the boulder up the hill.

Finally, it seems, their hard work is beginning to pay off.

Anthony Davis scored 10 of his game-high 30 points in a two-minute stretch of the fourth quarter and DeMarcus Cousins posted his seventh career triple-double with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists to power the Pelicans to a 123-101 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night at the Smoothie King Center.

The victory improved the Pelicans' record to 3-3 and, incredibly, marked the first time in the last 981 days -- since Feb. 20, 2015, when they were 27-27 -- that they have reached .500. Since Alvin Gentry took over the Pelicans three years ago, the team has never been at .500.

"Yeah, it's been about four years, three years, something like that," Davis said, smiling, recalling the Pelicans' 1-11 start in 2015 and 0-8 start last season, from which they never recovered. "It just feels good. It's just something we want to keep going. We don't want to get excited over .500. We want to go back and try to keep this thing going."

Cousins certainly kept things going. One game after his monster 41-point, 23-rebound, six-assist performance in a 114-106 road victory over Sacramento on Thursday, Cousins scored at will and flashed his amazing interior passing skills. The Pelicans finished with a season-high 33 assists after matching a franchise record with 21 assists in the first half when they built a 65-52 lead.

"We understand that with ball movement and cutting we're a tough team to match up with," Cousins said. "When we play like this on a nightly basis, we've got a very good chance of being the team we want to be. (The crowd was) buzzing.

"There's a good vibe over the city, there's good energy, and hopefully we can continue to feed that energy into the city."

The Pelicans got just three points from their bench in the first 47 minutes but won going away. Besides Davis and Cousins, Jrue Holiday added 29 points and seven assists and E'Twaun Moore tied a career high with 24 points.

"Jrue playing at this level makes us an even better team," Cousins said.

The Cavaliers (3-3), who lost their second straight game and for the seventh consecutive time in New Orleans, were paced by Kevin Love with 26 points and LeBron James with 18. But coach Tyronn Lue pulled his starters with six minutes left.

"We're fine, we're fine," James said, acknowledging the rotations the Cavaliers have been playing are works in progress while guards Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade work their way back from injuries. "It's way too (early). I'm not overlooking what's going on. I wasn't overlooking when we had success. I'm not overlooking when we've had a couple of (poor) games.

"I'm an even-keel guy. I understand it's a long process for us. We've played some crazy lineups that we haven't even played in practice. We'll continue to get better."

Lue said, "I'm not concerned."

Love led a 3-point assault -- making three from long range in a little more than a minute -- to spark a 22-7 Cleveland run in a 6:19 span that turned a 65-52 deficit into a 73-72 lead. But the Pelicans counterpunched with a 12-2 run, with 3-pointers by Moore and Holiday, and led 89-83 after three.

Gentry is thrilled this season has not started the way the previous two have, when the Pelicans dug themselves a hole from which they could never climb out.

"It's really important to us because it's so hard when you're trying to make up seven, eight games," Gentry said. "There are just so many good teams, not just the teams that are at the top."

Both Gentry and Davis were amazed at how Cousins followed his spectacular game against Sacramento with a triple-double.

"He's been great, but he's a great player," Gentry said. "This is not anything that's new to us. We've played against him for seven years, and he's been a dominant force in those games also. Just to have him on your team, a guy who's a willing passer. He said, 'If guys make cuts, I'll be able to find them.'"

"He's been huge," Davis said of Cousins. "He's got a different mindset. He wants to win, he wants to get a taste of those playoffs, and he's doing whatever he has to do for that to happen. To follow up a game like Sacramento with a triple-double is unheard of."

NOTES: Using a hardship injury exemption, the Pelicans signed F Josh Smith, who played most recently in China. In 26 games with the Sichuan Blue Whales, Smith averaged 18.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 blocks. Injuries have sidelined Pelicans centers Alexis Ajinca and Omer Asik and F Solomon Hill. ... Cavs coach Tyronn Lue wasn't biting when asked about Major League Baseball postponing Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel's suspension until the 2018 regular rather than during the World Series. Golden State's Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, which Cleveland won after falling behind 3-1. "(Green) played in the last two games, didn't he?" Lue asked. "What if Kevin (Love) and Kyrie (Irving) played in Year One (in the 2015 Finals). It could've been different, so, whatever." ... Cleveland PG Derrick Rose has missed four of six games with a sore left ankle.