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DeMarcus Cousins destroyed the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, the same day reports started flying that he cussed out his coach in a "profanity-laced tirade" in the locker room. Cousins followed up the classic Cousins CONTROVERSY with a monster game to down Andre Drummond and the Pistons.
New to his repertoire, Cousins hit four three-pointers in the first half, three of them while matched up against Drummond, who dared Cousins to shoot. Cousins had all of 15 three-point makes in six years at a 18-percent clip, and while it is well known that he's worked on that part of his game, he was still only 29 percent this year, so it wasn't a total brainless strategy to make the big man beat him beyond the arc. Sure, Dre should've adjusted, and SVG did it for him by taking Drummond off Cousins duty to start the second half, but it's not fair to kill Drummond for it.
I don't think it would have mattered who was on Cousins, either. He's extremely talented and was in F THE WORLD mode all game and almost deflated and ate a basketball at one point, I think. Notwithstanding Drummond's frustrations with that big meanie Cousins, Dre still wound up with a ho-hum 14 points and 17 rebounds, which is a career game for a lot of NBA players. CONTROVERSY and big game and all, Cousins acknowledged Drummond on the court after the game before praising him to the media (quote via MLIVE):
"Man, Andre is full of potential, man. I think he's having an amazing year. I mean, he's leading his team. The kid's full of potential. He's definitely one of the best bigs in this league."
Definitely. And that's fair praise from another one of the best in the game, who was on full display on Wednesday night.
Now your CONTROVERSIAL thoughts.