Stats: 36min 33pts (8-27, 0-1, 17-19) 17reb 3ast 4stl 4blk 3TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- Just like in the game with Philly eleven days ago, Cousins put up some really big numbers tonight. I can't possibly go through all of the things that he did out there, but I figured maybe I'd highlight some of the memorable moments from his numbers. Boogie had only three assists tonight, and the best one came early in the fourth quarter when he grabbed an offensive rebound and dumped a prescient pass down to a cutting Derrick Williams for an easy dunk. Cousins had four blocks tonight, and none was better (or more important) than the stuff of a driving Ish Smith late in the fourth, who apparently thought that he was going to be able to continue his uncontested drives from the first half in a period when we were actually trying on defense. Perhaps even better than that defensive standout came a few plays before when Boogie broke up a half-court lob attempt to get the Kings going the other way. And as for his four steals? Well, I'm not certain if he got credit for a steal on the play, but the obvious standout was the final play of the game, when Cousins stepped into the lane to turn away Hollis Thompson's last second drive and knocked out the ball to seal the win. Huge play. And if I can highlight a turnover, after a bad pass in the third quarter, Cousins stepped in front of a fast-breaking Sixer and drew a charge - about 70 feet from the basket. I don't think I've ever seen a charge taken that far in the backcourt - in fact it's pretty rare to see a charge taken in the backcourt at all. But as long as we're talking the numbers, we ought to acknowledge one that won't show up directly in the boxscore - 36 shots. Yes, Cousins did drop 33 points tonight, but he took 36 shots to do it - and it wasn't for missing free throws as Cousins went a fantastic 17-19 from the line. The vast majority of Boogie's shots tonight, however, came under duress in the paint. The Sixers were consistently double-teaming him, frequently triple-teaming him, and on at least one occasion threw a quadruple-team at our beast in the low post. As a result he found a way to miss 14 shots in the paint tonight, many of those not particularly high-percentage shots. In the end, he did a lot of great work out there and we would never have won without his efforts on the boards and defense. But his offensive efficiency was not good, and he ought to have looked to switch things up - e.g. get Rudy a few more shots, get Ben involved - in an attempt to take better advantage of the clogged paint rather than doggedly going up against it over and over. --Capt.