DeMarcus Cousins scores 55, gets ejected, gets unejected, then rants after game

By Kurt HelinDec 21, 2016, 2:10 AM EDT
14 Comments

Nobody has had a day quite like DeMarcus Cousins did Tuesday.

First, he was fined $50,000 by his own team for publicly berating a Sacramento Bee columnist.

Next, he took out all that frustration on the overmatched defense of the Portland Trail Blazers, scoring 55 points on 17-of-28 shooting, leading the Kings to 126-121 win over the team they are chasing for a playoff slot.

Near the end of the game, Cousins got ejected after barking at the Trail Blazers bench and his mouthpiece coming out — one referee thought he either spit it or threw it at the Blazers bench and gave him a technical, Cousins’ second. He sprinted to the locker room to avoid doing anything stupid. Then the officials talked, decided the mouthpiece coming out was accidental, and rescinded the technical. See the whole thing below, decide for yourself if it was an accident.

Here is the official explaination — the referee says he thought Cousins threw his mouthpiece.

Then after the game, Cousins went off on a “ridiculous” rant about the ejection, how he’s treated by referees, how other teams are playing him, and… then the mic cuts off.

That sounded a lot like the broadcast cut off the mic on Cousins to squelch his rant — which quickly became a popular theory on Twitter — but the woman holding the mic said that is not the case.

Whatever happened with the mic, nobody has ever had a day quite like Cousins did Tuesday. Not even Oscar Robertson.

Marcus Smart says blaming Kyrie Irving for Celtics’ fall is BS

By Kurt HelinMay 9, 2019, 6:29 PM EDT
Leave a comment

Celtics fans all but had pitchforks and torches, ready to run Kyrie Irving out of town after he struggled against the Bucks and was at the heart of Boston being eliminated from the playoffs. They are not alone, one player called Irving difficult to play with. Then there was this comment from someone with the Cavaliers to Jeff Goodman of Stadium:

“Doesn’t want to listen to anybody,” a Cavs source told me about Irving. “I’ve been around more selfish guys, but when you add up those three – moody, immature and tough to coach – he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”

While there is plenty of blame to go around — starting with Danny Ainge knowing he had a potentially combustible locker room — down through all the players, it was Irving that has become the focal point. He is the guy Celtics fans want to go. He is taking the most blame after a series where he shot 35.6 percent overall and 21.9 percent from three — in five games against the Bucks he scored 102 points on 104 shots.

Marcus Smart came to Irving’s defense, via Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston.

“Bulls***. That’s bulls***,” said Smart. “Not one of us on this team knows what Kyrie’s been through. Probably a few amount of people in this world knows what Kyrie goes through. It was hard for him as well.

“He was forced into a situation where it was business over the friendships, where he had to come into a situation knowing that this is a group of guys that had something going before I come here. ‘How will I fit in?’ He didn’t want to disrupt that. And that says a lot. This is Kyrie Irving we’re talking about. And he’s talking about coming in and disrupting us.”

It looked like he did disrupt things, at least on the court. Irving is a great isolation player, but that took the Celtics out of the ball-and-player-movement style Brad Stevens wants, and that worked in the postseason a year ago.

Boston and Ainge have some decisions to make this summer about what kind of team they are trying to build. Irving has a decision about where he wants to play next season. Those two things may not work well together.

It’s going to be a hot summer in Boston come July.

 

NBA says it’s inconclusive if Klay Thompson stepped out of bounds late in Game 5

By Kurt HelinMay 9, 2019, 5:35 PM EDT
2 Comments

Of course there was an officiating controversy, it’s Houston vs. Golden State. There has to be some.

Rockets fans (and players) claimed that with :11 seconds to go in the game, with the Rockets down three, Chris Paul and James Harden trapped Klay Thompson on the sideline, and as Thompson leaned back to find room to throw a pass he stepped out of bounds with the ball in his hands. You can see the play in the video above, and screenshots from it make it look like Thompson steps out of bounds with the ball in his hand. The call would have given the Rockets a chance to tie the game.

The NBA didn’t see it that way, calling it inconclusive in the Last Two Minute Report:

Paul (HOU) and Harden (HOU) trap Thompson (GSW) against the sideline and Thompson jumps backwards to find an opening for the pass. After reviewing the play from multiple angles and frame-by-frame, there is no conclusive angle that shows the ball touching Thompson’s (GSW) fingertips as he lands before releasing the ball on his pass attempt.

The league did say Eric Gordon should have been called for a loose ball foul in the scramble after Thompson’s errant pass because of how Gordon ran into Shaun Livingston.

The L2M report also said Thompson should have been called for a reach-in foul on Gordon with 1:26 left in the game (Gordon regained control of the ball after it was knocked away).

Two quick thoughts.

First, while the official was standing right next to Thompson as he tries to make that pass that referee is really not in a good position to make that call — there’s no way he can see the release of the ball and the foot at the same time from his vantage point. He was too close.

Second, this call is not why the Rockets lost. Houston gave up 32 points to a Golden State team without Kevin Durant in the fourth, that is why it lost. It’s never one play, one thing, or one call.

Klay Thompson denies that he’s unhappy with Warriors

Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
By Dan FeldmanMay 9, 2019, 4:44 PM EDT
4 Comments

Warriors star Klay Thompson, according to rumor, is unhappy.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr insisted Thompson was happy, but I’d rather hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Thompson, via Mark Medina of The Mercury News:

“That’s not true,” Thompson told Bay Area News Group. “Have I ever indicated I was unhappy?”

If that’s the case, Thompson can prove it by re-signing this summer. That’ll be the ultimate test.

At very minimum, Thompson is happy enough now to shut down talk that could harm the Warriors’ chemistry. That’s important as they make this playoff run.

But there have been numerous indications Thompson is more deeply happy in Golden State. I wouldn’t ignore Stephen A. Smith’s report, but I also wouldn’t let it supersede other information.

Is Thompson always perfectly content as third option behind Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry? Probably not. Does he feel worse about his place in the pecking in order when he’s slumping? Probably.

I can see how that’d get confused into something greater as Thompson was struggling recently. But there’s a long way between that and Thompson actually leaving in free agency.

Report: Kevin Durant out rest of Warriors-Rockets series

By Dan FeldmanMay 9, 2019, 3:40 PM EDT
8 Comments

Steve Kerr already ruled out Kevin Durant for Warriors-Rockets Game 6 tomorrow.

Durant would apparently miss a potential Game 7 Sunday, too.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:

The Warriors gave themselves a ton of margin for error by rallying for a win after Durant went down in Game 5. With a 3-2 series lead, Golden State needs to win just one of two games, the second of which would be at home. Of teams in that situation, 91% have won the series.

But Durant’s injury hurts. He’s a great player who was hitting peak form.

The Warriors will likely start Kevon Looney, losing their small-ball identity. Everyone – especially Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson – should get more touches as Golden State reverts to more of the movement offense it used prior to Durant’s arrival.

Will this give Houston’s small lineup with P.J. Tucker at center an advantage? This opens the door a little wider for the Rockets.

The Warriors certainly can’t count on advancing, but they’ll also probably hope the Trail Blazers force a Game 7 against the Nuggets to delay the start of the Western Conference finals.