[Game] Game 55: Sacramento Kings @ Los Angeles Clippers

[206Fan]

A little far. Ya think?

Yes, the league's 3rd best rebounder really has to man up and quit playing like Amare on the glass. Couldn't be that it was a back to back against 1 of the 2 guys who averages even more boards than he does.

I feel like I'm having a debate with people who just watched their first Kings game and caught DeMarcus on an off night.

Ever since his injury, he's been playing meh. He's been terribly inconsistent on defense. I give him the benefit of the doubt and pin it down on fatigue, but there are times where Cousins goes out and gets a monster block, or takes a good charge. But there are other times where he'll just stand there and won't bother to put his hand up.

He's also become a very inconsistent scorer. He was above .500 before his injury, and now he's all the way down to .46%. I don't think Cousins is at 100% right now. It's arguable that he's playing the worst bball of his career in 2015....for entire month of January, he's averaged 23pts 13rebs and 4asts...but on a terrible .402% shooting...and 5.2tos. February has been much better, but he's been inconsistent all around. Not to mention the type of defense he's been playing..

I really do give Cousins the benefit of the doubt because of his illness, but if he's not 100% he shouldn't be playing.

 

[Bricklayer]

lol.

I rather doubt that was even the worst shooting month of his career, let alone the worst 23-13-4 month of his career. The numbers are so ridiculous people lose all perspective at some point.

 

[IfAt1st]

If I had to guess, I'd attribute Demarcus' bad play last night to this:

From his vantage point on the court, after he busted his butt and the team built up a 10-point lead in the first, by the time he came back in he was down by (12?) points.
I don't think he had the desire to play hard enough, against this hated rival, to change that outcome.

I think he's focusing too much now on how good other players have it in the NBA.
He sees Deandre Jordan get so many easy dunks, and he despairs over his PG's.
He sees JJ Reddick nailing open kicked-out jumpshot after open 3, and he despairs at his teammates bricking his perfectly-set-up kick-outs. He's constantly mourning his loss of assists out there.
He thinks he's getting the raw end of the ref's whistles every single play.

(On a side note, I don't think the refs were NEARLY as tough on him last night as they have been basically his whole career. They would have thrown him out before for BOTH his incessant yapping AND his "accidental" neck-push vs Smart. He DID look at Smart as he came in, and did extend his arm to that area. That's all it would have taken before this year for him to be thrown out.)

Mentally, he's a wreck out there, and he won't get better till he fixes it.
These kind of mental spiraling can change as soon as his teammates play better and he isn't getting beaten by his most hated team with no hope of winning.

But these are still all excuses.

It IS Demarcus' responsibility for him to control and manage his approach to the game, and not let embarrassments like last night happen again. He will not get the results he wants like that.
It will take a lot more than numbers on a losing team for him to become the Best Center of His Generation.

 

[gunks]

Cousins has just seemed gassed. This being a back to back didn't help.

Viral meningitis isn't a joke. Honestly, I think Cousins has been playing at about 75-80%, and I dont think we're going to see him at 100 percent for the rest of the year.

 

[PBNJ85]

Adrenalin hangover from Boston game. Back to back against a playoff team.

Good time for some practice and a team rest.

I think we win 12-13 more games.

 

[VF21]

I really do give Cousins the benefit of the doubt because of his illness, but if he's not 100% he shouldn't be playing.

If you made that a rule, arguably 75% of the league wouldn't be playing on any given night.

Some of you need to just take a deep breath and relax. DMC is gonna have off nights. Every single player has bad nights. In all honesty, it really bugs me that some of you seem so anxious to find fault with a kid who has put this team on his back night after night, showing more passion and heart than a lot of fans, and trying to hold things together while the front office was apparently just waiting for the right juxtaposition of the planets to fix the problem they caused.

 

[Darth Divac]

In my opinion, the Kings should give him a day or two off (or seven). All playoff teams do it with their stars, and the Kings aren't exactly in a tight division race. A couple games' rest would get him back in sorts.

 

[Tetsujin]

That's taking it a little too far. He's still averaging over 12 RPG.

Well if he wasn't slacking, he'd average twenty a game. Slacker.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

lol.

I rather doubt that was even the worst shooting month of his career, let alone the worst 23-13-4 month of his career. The numbers are so ridiculous people lose all perspective at some point.

Well, no, but it was close. If you consider calendar months where Cousins has at least 100 FGA (so you exclude like one game in October type stuff) Cousins has 24 "qualifying" months in his career. January was #21 of 24 in FG%. And if you look at TO/36, January and February are #22 and #23 out of 24. His shooting percentage has actually moved up a good deal in February (.462, which is right on his career average), but he's basically 1.2 TO/36 worse than his career average over the last two months.

The shooting percentage almost certainly has to do with the meningitis - I don't think he's 100% back yet, and like most people have said he didn't look like he had his legs under him on the second half of the back-to-back last night. The turnovers are more of a concern for me. I don't know if he's just trying too hard to make a great play, or what is going on. I could imagine that with the struggles the team has had that Cuz doesn't feel like a vanilla offensive set is going to be a good option, so he tries to thread the needle and get a brilliant pass to get things going...I don't know. Hopefully Karl can get the team on an even keel and Cousins will cut down on the risky plays with the knowledge that a vanilla offensive set is still a good set. But whatever the reason, he's got to get those turnovers down from the last two months (5.1 per 36) to something closer to his career average (3.9 per 36).

 

[Chubbs]

So let me get this straight. I'm supposed to worry about this guys 'lift'?