Here is our nightly look at some of the noteworthy things around the NBA, the things you missed while glued to a toilet seat at Home Depot.
DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento Kings. Note to Rudy Gay: Get this guy the ball. Not like you did with Jonas Valanciunas — actually get Cousins the rock. Cousins was a beast against Dallas, scoring 32 points on 17 shots, plus he pulled down 19 rebounds. Combined with Derrick Williams’ career high 31 points the Kings front line dominated a good Dallas team. Starting Wednesday we’ll see how Gay fits into that mix.
John Wall, Washington Wizards. On one hand, the Wizards are not in this game at the end if it’s not for his 20 points and 8 assists. But the Wizards had multiple chances to win this game at the end and we saw Wall get one layup blocked by Kenneth Faried, he just missed a driving layup off a great Glen Rice Jr. steal. Then with one final shot with four seconds left Wall made a nice move to get open then just fumbled the pass going up for a shot. Rough way to end the game for Wall and the Wizards.
Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors. It was a homecoming game for Curry in Charlotte and he put on quite a show putting up 43 points, but he seemed to be forcing it at times. For example he was 3-of-11 shooting in the first half but Curry found the range in the second 24 minutes — he had 32 points after halftime, 19 in the fourth quarter. When he gets going he is unguardable — Kemba Walker played some strong defense, it just didn’t matter. However, Curry gets a B- for that first half and the defense (or lack thereof) he played on Walker down the stretch.
Kemba Walker, Charlotte Bobcats. He was not going to let Charlotte lose this one — he scored the Bobcats final 15 points as Charlotte held off Golden State to get a win at home. Walker had 27 of his 31 points in the second half (on 10-of-18 shooting) as he was able to penetrate and break down the Golden State defense, then made some tough shots when they did slide over onto him, or he drew the foul. It was Walkers’ best game of the season.