You guys aren’t going to believe this, but got pretty steamed during the Sacramento Kings’ Sunday matchup against the Golden State Warriors, and he handled it in a manner that might be described as “not understated.”[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball contest now | Free NBA Yahoo Cup entry]With just over four minutes remaining in the first half and the Kings holding a 13-point edge over the defending Western Conference champs, the All-Star center flew in to try to grab the offensive rebound of a miss by point guard Ty Lawson. In the process, he bumped the Warriors’ , prompting official John Goble to whistle Cousins for a loose-ball foul, his third of the half and halfway to a disqualification with 28-plus minutes still remaining./X9Wq7pqygy — Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) January 9, 2017 Cousins’ crushing kicks and fists of fury earned him a technical foul, his 10th of the 2016-17 season, tying Russell Westbrook for the league lead. The moment prompted Green — no stranger to fits of emotion and, well, kicking himself — to mosey on over to his 2016 U.S. Olympic teammate, according to Anthony Slater of the Bay Area News Group:As Steph Curry shot the technical free throw, Green wandered over to the Kings bench to give Cousins some grief for the tantrum.
“Had a couple words for him,” Green smiled. Has Green, the owner of seven technicals this season, ever kicked a chair in frustration? “Nah, I ain’t kicking no chair,” Green said. “I like my foot in one piece.” [Follow Ball Don’t Lie on social media: Twitter | Tumblr]Those weren’t the only words Green had to share about Cousins, a two-time All-Star who ranks fourth in the NBA in scoring and is on pace to become just the seventh player ever to average at least 28 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and one block per game, joining Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal (who did it twice), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Bob McAdoo and David Robinson. From Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle:“He’s incredible. He can score the ball. I think DeMarcus is the best center in the game. I think a lot of times people try to — a lot of times people don’t give him that credit, and a lot of it is they try to downplay his status because of his reputation, or getting technical fouls and things like that.
He is the best big man in the game. “It’s always interesting to watch, interesting to play against and interesting to play with. He’s so incredibly talented. He can shoot the three now. In the last couple years, he’s added that to his game. He’s always had the midrange. He’s taking guys off the dribble, going to the post, getting And-1s. “He’s an incredible player, and he continues to get better year in and year out — regardless of what credit people try to take from him or try not to necessarily give him. He’s the best big man in the game.” Cousins was not, however, his game-breaking self on Sunday, finishing with 17 points on 4-for-11 shooting, 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocks, two steals and seven turnovers in 30 minutes of work against Golden State. Productive numbers, but not nearly enough to keep the Dubs from erasing Sacramento’s double-digit lead with a monster 39-point third quarter that propelled them to a 117-106 win.After a dispiriting loss to the Grizzles on Friday, the Warriors got back to their winning ways.
The Kings, meanwhile, have now lost three straight to fall to 15-22, a frustrating stretch that briefly — and, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee, unapologetically — prompted Boogie to resort to violence against inanimate objects:– – – – – – –Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. or follow him on Twitter!LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “The system is broken,” Rick Pitino said, and he was off.A day after being told by his University of Louisville bosses that his very good basketball team will have no postseason, Pitino was by no means shying away from that painful topic. The Friday press conference to announce the school’s shocking, self-imposed ban featured a whole lot of no-comment from hired investigative adviser Chuck Smrt, and a whole lot of comment from Pitino.And he still wasn’t done. There was more to say Saturday.For a guy who isn’t supposed to talk about the NCAA investigation swirling around his team, which moved to 19-4 Saturday by burying Boston College 79-47, he talked extensively.
He might be uncontrollable for the school administration right now when it comes to keeping his mouth shut, but that doesn’t mean he’s nonsensical. There was a lot from his postgame press conference to consider.Pitino offered an alternative to the NCAA’s tortured crime-and-punishment system, which almost always penalizes players who had nothing to do with the violations. His suggestion: fine the bejesus out of the school and take 50 percent of the head coach’s salary.“Kill the university’s pocketbook and put it in a scholarship fund for needy kids to go to college,” Pitino said. We should be penalized, no question about it. But not this team. I think it’s wrong to penalize these kids. You hurt a lot of good people, a lot of fans. Innocent people will pay the price.”The two innocents taking the biggest hit are graduate transfers and . They were treated to big pregame ovations by the Yum Center crowd Saturday – Lewis in the starting lineup and Lee, who was out with a bruised knee, when Pitino had him toss up an improvisational honorary jump ball before the game.“
My heart goes out to those two fifth-year seniors for their team,” Boston College coach Jim Christian said. His players personally extended their best wishes to Lee and Lewis before tipoff.Pitino also offered clarity on who made the controversial and wholly surprising call to self-impose the postseason ban in February: it was athletic director Tom Jurich, not school president James Ramsey. Pitino attempted to take Ramsey off the hook, after he had been vilified for the past 24 hours in this shell-shocked town. A banner hung Saturday morning from the front facade of popular Patrick O’Shea’s bar across the street from the Yum Center that read, “Ramsey Is A Coward.”“Please, nobody blame Dr. Ramsey,” Pitino said. “Tom Jurich made this decision. Dr. Ramsey had to OK the decision. My faith is in Tom Jurich. He is a great AD. Did he hurt us? More than you can imagine.“Please, don’t give [Ramsey] the heat. He’s taken enough heat from enough places.”(That’s a reference to Ramsey being besieged in the city for a variety of non-athletic issues.
Notable among them: the University of Louisville Foundation is under scrutiny from the state auditor, partly for the huge deferred compensation paid to Ramsey; and the wildly unwise decision of Ramsey and staff to dress up in stereotypical Mexican garb – ponchos, sombreros and fake mustaches – for Halloween.)Pitino offered his critique of a Louisville administration and board of trustees that created an investigative committee that didn’t include the athletic director: He’s not a big fan of that set-up.“Tom is the best AD in all of athletics,” Pitino said. “We love the man, we respect the man. You don’t go into war without your general.”Pitino said that if Jurich were on the committee and thus aware that violations had occurred sometime before this week, the situation would have been handled by now.“We would have done this [self-imposed ban] a month and a half ago,” Pitino said.He even had something to say about Louisville madam Katina Powell and her book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen,” which brought the strippers-and-escorts scandal into being.“
What was her motive? To hurt us and make money,” Pitino said. They weren’t trying to clean up the ills of college basketball.”The scandal has been simmering in Pitino’s mind all season, occasionally rising to a public boil. It’s likely to stay on the front burner for the eight games Louisville has left.Here’s the intriguing thing: what if the Cardinals actually win the ACC regular-season title?Boston College is a really bad team, but no-sulk Louisville won by 32 without its leading scorer. In Lee’s absence, freshman Deng Adel had 13 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals – hinting at his talent and reinforcing the depth of this team.The Cardinals currently are 8-2, alone in second place in the league. One game ahead is North Carolina, which would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker with Louisville based on the Cardinals’ win over the Tar Heels on Monday.The remaining schedule makes winning the league prohibitive: road games against Duke, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Miami and Virginia;