Photo by Rocky Widner
San Francisco, CA - One game left at Arco Arena and their franchise player will await if he'll be suspended for the Kings final home game of the season this upcoming Wednesday. It's up to the NBA to decide the fate of DeMarcus Cousins who recorded his sixteenth technical foul tonight.
"I feel for him," head coach Michael Malone said. "He's made a concerted effort to handle his emotions and not get that last tech. We'll try to do whatever we can to get that rescinded but it's disappointing because I know it meant a lot to him."
Cousins picked up his 15th technical foul on Feb 25th when he punched Houston guard Patrick Beverly in the stomach. Per NBA rules, a 16th technical results in a automatic suspension. If the decision is not overturned then Cousins played his last game.
Sacramento ended their five-game losing streak after beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 106-103. Cousins led all scores for the Kings with 35 points, 15 rebonds and six assists. The Kings went on a 11-2 run late in the fourth with a monster dunk from Cousins and two back-to-back 3-pointers from Ray McCallaum."
"We're still a team trying to grow and find ourselves," said Cousins who refused to discuss the tech. "I think we took steps forward today. We did a pretty good job tonight of handling the situation and overcoming adversity."
"Our defense wasn't good enough in the second half," Kevin Love said. "Offensively we were fine, but they kind of went on a run and never looked back."
The Timberwolves pulled within two points late in the fourth on three free throws from Love after Cousins was charged with the technical foul. Cousins responded by dunking the ball on the next play to spark Sacramento's rally for the win. Love finished with a game-high 43 points and 11 rebounds for Minnesota after losing their lead in the fourth quarter.
"We got it down to two points," head coach Rick Adelman said. "We just couldn't get the stop we needed late. At that point you had to get stops. They scored and kept it away from us."