In Friday’s game against the Pelicans, DeMarcus Cousins scored 24 points, pulled down 20 rebounds, handed out a career-high 13 assists and also blocked 4 shots. This is the second night in a row that Boogie had a triple-double that included 20 points and 20 rebounds. In the Kings last game on Wednesday, Cousins stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists, 6 blocks, and 3 steals against the Rockets. He is only the third player in NBA history to have two 20-20-10 games in back-to-back games joining the elite company of Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor.
Although Boogie played so well, the Kings were not able to beat Anthony Davis and the Pelicans, losing a close game 101-95. The Kings lost both of Cousins historic games, losing to the Rockets 115-111 on Wednesday due in part to James Harden having a career game of his own. The Kings played well when Boogie was on the court Friday, as his +/- was +7, but when he was not on the court, they fell apart. He was the only starter for the Kings that had a positive +/-. The only other player on the team with a positive +/- was Jason Thompson at +2.
The big match up of former Kentucky big men, Davis and Cousins, was very competitive, as Davis recorded a double-double. Davis had 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks when the final buzzer sounded in his teams victory. The two former Kentucky standouts put on a great show just like they did last week.
DeMarcus Cousins has been hot over his past five games. He has recorded at least a double-double in all five games, and 2 triple-doubles. He has averaged 28.2 PPG, 17.8 RPG, 6.2 APG, 3.6 BPG, and finally 2.2 SPG. During that time, he has had 4 games with over 15 point games, and 39 point game against the Pelicans last week. He has played exceptionally well both offensively and defensively, but sadly, his team has only won one of the five games which was against the Phoenix Suns. Despite reports that Boogie would be getting shut down, DeMarcus looks to keep playing great basketball to finish out the season, and his team looks to turn his play into wins for the remaining of this season.
