When DeMarcus Cousins looks across the court Tuesday night, he will not see Kevin Love. That’s because Cousins has finally found a fellow player who controls his emotions worse than he does.
Love is sidelined by a suspension, which means Cousins could have a big game when the Sacramento Kings visit the Minnesota Timberwolves in Tuesday’s best NBA game.
Both Love and Cousins showed their frustration in recent games. However, it was Cousins who kept his emotions in check, while Love lost it.
After some very physical play against the Houston Rockets on Saturday, Love let his emotions get the best of him, stepping his size 19 shoe on a fallen Luis Scola as he ran back downcourt.
No foul was called on the play, but the NBA later ruled it a flagrant-2 and suspended Love for two games.
It wasn’t Love’s first run-in with Scola. Earlier last week, his groin was the target when Scola saved a ball from going out of bounds. And Love also delivered a hard foul to Indiana’s Danny Granger on Wednesday, with his comments afterward earning Quote of the Week honors.
Leading the league in minutes played (39.4), Love could use some rest. But losing its best player is costly for Minnesota (12-12) as it tries to climb over .500 after 25 games for the first time since
2006, when Kevin Garnett played power forward.
The Wolves have won three of their past four.
Cousins also became overly heated against the New Orleans Hornets on Monday, although not to the same degree. He received a technical foul after complaining about physical play but regained his composure in the second half, ending up with 28 points and a season-high 19 rebounds to help the Kings rally for a 100-92 win.
Tyreke Evans has averaged 23.4 points and, like a true point guard, 7.2 assists in Sacramento’s last five games – the last three of which have been wins.
Love’s absence likely will elevate Michael Beasley to starter and give more minutes to rookie Derrick Williams, who is looking to earn coach Rick Adelman’s trust.
Mike,
This turned out to be a pretty good prediction. Nice job.
CB
Cousins will met Pek and won’t like it much. Pek is looking to add to his skull collection at the bottom of his awesome bicep tat.
As the Argentinian would say, Love hurts.