Cousins ejected in act of frustration, Warriors sprint by Kings
Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins is widely known as a ultra-talented player prone to bouts of frustration and impulsiveness. Projecting the 25-year-old’s future is an ongoing struggle between trusting his undeniable ability on the court and lamenting his penchant for making rash decisions that take him out of the game and threaten the Kings’ chances at winning. He’s thrilling for right and wrong reasons, usually all at once.
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Cousins’s worst qualities popped up again Monday night a few minutes into the third quarter of the Kings’ game against the rival Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. He reached in to foul Stephen Curry at the 8:56 mark on a relatively uncontroversial call that saddled Cousins with his fifth personal and a lengthy stay on the bench. Yet he made the situation worse by complaining to the referees for not giving the foul to teammate Ben McLemore, earning him a technical. Cousins then ramped up his displeasure and received a second tech for the automatic ejection. Take a look:
It’s possible to make a reasonable argument that Cousins received the first tech on reputation, but his image is so well established in NBA circles that it’s natural to question why Cousins hasn’t adjusted to that reality in order to keep himself out of trouble. He may get in trouble more than he deserves, but he also doesn’t find a way to avoid it. As such, it’s difficult for him to encounter trouble without an NBA analyst or two wondering when the Kings will trade him:
The ejection was a shame, too, because Cousins had attracted attention mere moments before for this delightfully bizarre attempt at picking up Rajon Rondo by his leg:
The Kings rued his absence for much more concrete reasons. The dismissal preceded a 15-0 Golden State run that turned a two-point Sacramento lead into a 13-point deficit. The Warriors never looked back and won 122-103 without needing to play Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Andrew Bogut in the fourth.
Curry was the star of the night, putting up a triple-double with 23 points (6-of-13 3FG), a career-high 14 rebounds, and 10 assists in only 30 minutes. Surprisingly, Curry was held scoreless until the final 3:15 of the first half. But the reigning MVP dominated with a 17-point barrage before the break:
Omri Casspi nearly matched Curry over that same stretch, making four threes in the final three minutes of the half on his way to a career-high 36 points (13-of-18 FG, 9-of-12 3FG). Yet Casspi was the only King to make at least half his field-goal attempts as the team shot just 38.9 percent from the floor.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
