{"id":823960,"date":"2011-01-31T00:08:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T07:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cowbellkingdom.com\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2011-01-31T00:08:53","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T07:08:53","slug":"kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings and Cousins take big steps."},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by Steven Chea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After not just a rough start to the season, but the happenings of this week, the Kings needed something to work in their favor.\u00a0 If you remember back to Thursday<\/a>, I asked Coach Paul Westphal if he thought that the Carl Landry situation might help to galvanize this team.\u00a0 Here was his answer to that question then:<\/p>\n

<\/em>I think we\u2019ve been fairly well galvanized anyway.\u00a0 We have a very good group.\u00a0 We\u2019re pulling hard and we are always disappointed if we lose, and we are trying to figure out a way to get over the hump and I think we\u2019ve been doing it together.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before the game Saturday night against the New Orleans Hornets, after beating the reigning world champion Lakers the night before at Staples center, I asked him the question again.<\/p>\n

Right now, I would say yes, and I hope it continues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Low and behold, it did continue.\u00a0 Mired in a stretch of games that would give Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich heartburn, the Kings are an improbable 2-0 in their last two games.\u00a0 The schedule doesn’t get any easier with Boston, San Antonio, Utah, Dallas and Oklahoma City coming to town, followed by Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Miami and Orlando on the road.<\/p>\n

Galvanized, improved, or maybe just the laws of averages finally catching up- whatever it is, this Kings team looks different than the one that took the floor for the first half of the season.<\/p>\n

Photo by Steven Chea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leading this charge?\u00a0 Rookie big man DeMarcus Cousins, who is not just burning up the court with his play, but showing remarkable signs of leadership.\u00a0 After posting 27 points and 10 rebounds against the Lakers on Friday night, the young center, who is often questioned about his level of fitness, posted 25 points 12 rebounds and 7 assists in the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday against the Hornets.<\/p>\n

Impressive numbers for sure, but maybe more impressive was Cousins regulating one of the NBA’s superstars during the waning moments of the Kings’ victory Saturday night.\u00a0 After a missed three point attempt by Marcus Thornton and the subsequent rebound by Samuel Dalembert and with just 31.4 seconds remaining in the game, Chris Paul flat out ran over Beno Udrih.\u00a0 Cousins was going to have none of that.\u00a0 Not only did he go to help scrape Beno off the floor, but he let Chris Paul know he wasn’t going to do that again.\u00a0 When asked what he said to Paul, Cousins said “I told him to clean it up.”\u00a0\u00a0 Cousins continued, “I know that I kind of overstepped the boundaries and Chris texted me that, but I’m going to continue to do it.”\u00a0 By “it”, DeMarcus Cousins means to protect his own, even against the stars of the NBA.<\/p>\n

Photo by Steven Chea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coach Westphal was asked about the Cousins\/Paul situation in his post game press conference and whether or not he liked the move by Cousins:<\/p>\n

If he got a technical I wouldn’t have liked it, but he was protecting his teammate.\u00a0 At that stage of the game, at all cost, you don’t want a technical – but especially your big fellas you want to protect your team.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Westphal continued about Cousins:<\/p>\n

DeMarcus for the last several games, I wouldn’t know where to start the count, his leap in poise and competitive maturity has been phenomenal.\u00a0 So yeah, I want to be on the lookout for an explosion, but he’s been extremely well-contained and his play has been reflective of that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Photo by Steven Chea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Call it a coincidence if you would like, but the Kings, after dealing with some local drama, have seemingly pulled together as a team.\u00a0 Not only have they beat two extremely high quality opponents, but they are showing signs that they are one unit, ready to back one another up on and off the court.\u00a0 The next ten games will test their resolve, but it’s starting to look like, win or lose, there will be no more taking this team lightly.<\/p>\n

As for DeMarcus Cousins, he gets to try his hand against a group of NBA legends this week.\u00a0 First up on the docket are Shaquille O’Neal and Kevin Garnett, but right behind those greats, an all-star caliber player in Al Jefferson and two more sure-fire hall of fame players in Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki.\u00a0 There is no rest for the weary in the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After not just a rough start to the season, but the happenings of this week, the Kings needed something to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[610259261],"tags":[610259504,610259419,5204276,610259505,610259506,486196,544524,610259460,1342245,197073,93601],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKings and Cousins take big steps. - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kings and Cousins take big steps.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-31T07:08:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"Kings and Cousins take big steps.\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-31T07:08:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-01-31T07:08:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/\"},\"wordCount\":785,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Al Jefferson.\",\"Carl Landry\",\"DeMarcus Cousins\",\"Dirk Nowitzke\",\"Garnett\",\"Jason Kidd\",\"Paul Pierce\",\"Paul Westphal\",\"Ray Allen\",\"shaq\",\"Tim Duncan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cowbell Kingdom\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2011\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/kings-and-cousins-take-big-steps\/\",\"name\":\"Kings and Cousins take big steps. - 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