The bookends of a forgettable 106-84 New Year’s Eve matinee loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden were not pretty for the Sacramento Kings.
The Kings endured a 9-0 run by Boston to start the game and were forced to finish it without DeMarcus Cousins, who was ejected.
“The game started off really slow and then I let my emotions get the best of me,” Cousins told reporters. “I just can’t do that. I got to be smart, got to make better decisions.”
At the 7:31 mark of the fourth quarter with the Kings trailing the Celtics 90-69, Cousins and rookie Marcus Smart got into a scrap and double technical fouls were assessed.
It was Cousins’ second technical of the afternoon, resulting in an ejection. He previously picked up a technical in the first quarter on a non-foul call on an attempted jumper.
Like not paying the band to stick around an extra hour at your New Year’s Eve party, any hint of a Sacramento comeback was silenced without Cousins on the floor.
“I did have an issue,” Cousins elaborated on the tussle, which resulted in him tossing Smart to the parquet floor after an overzealous box out by the rookie.
“It didn’t start with the box out, it was the pick," Cousins said. "He tried to run through my chest and then he came and I felt he took a cheap shot on the box out which resulted into what happened.”
Cousins now has three technical fouls on the campaign -- plus one that was rescinded -- after leading the league last year with 16, along with Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant.
“Regardless, I got to make better decisions,” Cousins admitted. “The team depends on me every night and I just can’t do things like that.”
Sacramento (13-19) did not respond to Cousins calling out his teammates in Brooklyn after Monday’s loss, or Tyrone Corbin’s pregame declaration that he is the Kings coach for the rest of the season.
“We just didn’t seem like we had any rhythm right from the beginning of the ball game. Whatever it was, we just couldn’t get anything going,” Corbin told the media in Boston.
“We missed shots, we got frustrated with ourselves, we got frustrated with the referees; everything was just off tonight so it’s a disappointing effort, disappointing loss and we have to get better.”
The Celtics (11-18) stymied Cousins, Rudy Gay and Darren Collison, holding the big three to only 34 points -– well below their combined average of 62.2 points per game.
“We were pretty locked in,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens commented to reporters at TD Garden. “I thought (Cousins) missed a couple of shots he normally makes early, so that’s a little bit of a fool’s gold.”
Cousins did secure his 17th double-double of the season and 13th in his last 14th game, scoring 11 points while corralling 11 rebounds.
But it was still a tough outing.
“(Cousins) didn’t have his best day,” Stevens continued.
“We had multiple guys guarding him at different times in the game. You know B.B. (Brandon Bass) saw him for a little bit, but Sully (Jared Sullinger) and Tyler (Zeller) did the bulk of the guarding and I thought they both did a good job.”
Gay in particular struggled through a subpar 4-for-19, nine-point performance.
“Yea…shots weren’t falling,” Gay told reporters. “All due respect to them (Celtics), they played great defense.”
“One of those games where you can’t measure your team.”
THE GOOD: Carl Landry was solid off the bench, scoring 14 points, going 7-for-11 from the floor while securing five rebounds.
THE BAD: An inauspicious beginning to the game. Boston put a 9-0 run on Sacramento –- not what you’d expect from the Kings after Cousins called out teammates after Monday’s loss in Brooklyn.
THE TAKE: The Kings must strive to be impervious to all distraction -– officiating, coaching status, illness, injury and feral road environments.
Furthermore, stagnant offense cannot lead to frustration and be compounded with lackluster defensive effort.
Mental toughness is paramount and Sacramento’s mettle continues to be tested.
“Its tough,” said Gay. “A lot of things happened. It’s going to take a little while for us to get our rhythm back. Maybe this is what we need to go through so we can get out of this whole and play a little better.”
Sacramento can only hope Gay's words prove prophetic.
