BOSTON — Celtics players were effusive Tuesday in their praise for DeMarcus Cousins.
“Maturation.” “Leadership.” A “changed” player.
None of those words could be used to describe the way Cousins played one day later.
Against the Boston Celtics, the Sacramento Kings center lived up to the “hothead” reputation that defined his first few NBA seasons — complaining to referees, dogging it down the court, the whole nine yards.
Ultimately, Cousins ended up with a season-low 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting before being told to hit the showers midway through the fourth quarter of an eventual 106-84 Celtics win.
“We brought the fight to him first,” Boston forward Jae Crowder said after the game. “Usually, he brings the fight to the opponent. (Tyler Zeller) did a great job of starting off on him early and pinching him early, and we threw a lot of different matchups at him. He was frustrated.”
Cousins’ frustration reached a boiling point at the 7:31 mark of the fourth when Celtics point guard Marcus Smart shifted over to box him out. Angered by what he viewed as a “cheap shot,” Cousins, who already had picked up one technical foul for arguing with officials, responded by slamming the rookie down on the TD Garden parquet.
Both players were T’d up on the play, with Cousins earning an ejection as a result. The two technicals equaled the big man’s season total entering the game.
Cousins’ displeasure with Smart actually started earlier in the same possession, when Smart ran hard into a pick Cousins had set — too hard, he believed.
“I did have an issue,” Cousins said. “It didn’t start with the box out, it was the pick. He tried to run through my chest, and then he came and I felt he took a cheap shot on the box-out, which resulted into what happened. Regardless, I’ve got to make better decisions. The team depends on me every night, and I just can’t do things like that.”
The Kings certainly do depend on their center, as the scoreboard clearly showed. As Cousins began the night 1-for-9 from the floor, the Celtics were busy leaping out to a 9-0 lead Sacramento never could recover from.
As for the exchange that ended Cousins’ afternoon, it doubled as, in Crowder’s words, “a message throughout the whole league” that regardless of Smart’s relatively small stature, the rook is not one to be trifled with.
“To be honest, I’m not really worried about (the altercation),” Smart said. “He knows I’m not going to back down from it. I don’t see why I got the tech but it’s all good. Like I said, I’m one of those guys that’s not going to back down from anything. I’m going to let that be known.”
NBA, consider yourself warned.
GIF via @MrTrpleDouble10
Photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
