It’s not easy being DeMarcus Cousins. Not only is the first-time All-Star his team’s two-way bell cow, but the Sacramento Kings ruined his season before it got started by abruptly firing Mike Malone in December – the only coach with whom he’s seen eye-to-eye in the NBA. We get all that. But it certainly doesn’t excuse a play like this. Watch Cousins stand idly by and forget to play defense as the Golden State Warriors complete a sideline alley-oop in his team’s 121-99 loss to their Northern California rivals.
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Inexcusable.
There’s a couple possibilities here. The first is that Cousins simply wasn’t aware play had begun because he was conversing with the Kings’ sideline – the succeeding view of the video above makes that seem the likely cause of Cousins’ gaffe.
But the next scenario is the more likely one. See how Boogie is standing on top of Marreese Speights? It seems he simply thought Sacramento had the ball.
Neither prospect is encouraging, of course, and actually encapsulates a dreadful overall defensive performance by the Kings. Golden State blitzed the home team from the game’s outset en route to 51 percent shooting, 52 points in the paint, and 30 fast break points. It was ugly for Sacramento no matter how you slice it.
At least Cousins got his numbers, maybe? He finished with a monster line of 26 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and four blocks. His actual impact, though, was far less than that, a reality indicated by this confounding lapse of laziness.
What do you think?
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