In the fourth quarter of the Golden State Warriors‘ 117-107 win over the Suns in Phoenix on Friday night, center DeMarcus Cousins had a rough stretch: A bad pass led to a steal by Mikal Bridges and 14 seconds later he missed a two-point shot with the Warriors down 88-94.
Less than a minute later, however, Cousins finished at the rim with a slam on an assist from Andre Iguodala. A little more than two minutes after that, Cousins dunked the ball again — this time, courtesy of an assist from Stephen Curry. Thirty seconds later, Cousins repaid the favor by dishing the ball to Curry who banked a three-pointer to push the score to 101-94 in favor of Golden State.
The Suns called a timeout with 5:45 left in the game, with hopes of regrouping. The Warriors’ coaches talked things over too, which is when Cousins crashed the coaches’ huddle with desperate pleas not to be taken out of the game.
Cousins had a point: He already had exhibited an ability to move on quickly from poor possessions and make up for it in the scoring column. (Simultaneously, he was also demonstrated an ability to play with fouls down the stretch.)
Cousins got his way for another few minutes before finally being pulled out of the game with 3:45 left on the clock and the Warriors up by six points.
This was a good call by head coach Steve Kerr, who is still monitoring his big man’s minutes. After all, Cousins has played just nine games so far during this 2018-19 season with the Warriors. But Cousins should feel good about his progress — moving from playing about 15 minutes per game just a few weeks ago to 27 minutes last night.
For his teammates as well as for Warriors fans, the competitive fire Cousins displayed down the stretch –in all of its argumentative glory — should offer a lot of hope for what this team is capable of doing the rest of the season.
Cousins finished the game with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block; he also had 4 personal fouls.
