Sacramento is a different team with their star center on the floor.
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Dallas, which has dropped four of five, missed 28 of 37 attempts from 3-point range.
“What’s wrong with the offense?”, Carlisle said. After the game, Cousins had some jokingly things to say about the three-guard implementation.
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, of Germany, right, questions official Kevin Cutler about a could call during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Nov. 30, 2015. “Dallas was just a pit stop in my career”, Rondo told the Sacramento Bee.
Sacramento trailed the Mavericks 58-54 at the intermission, but they clamped down on defense in the third quarter, holding the Mavericks to just 13 points on 5-for-22 shooting.
Cousins (back) participated for the entire duration of the Kings’ morning shootaround Monday and could make his return to the lineup later in the evening versus the Mavericks, James Ham of CSN Bay Area reports.
Cousins, back from a back strain, led the way with 31 points and 9 rebounds.
“I thought he was big for us, he gave us that spark, we fed off of him and the crowd as well”, Darren Collison said about Curry. “I think we are finally realizing that”.
Rondo was a free agent during the last offseason, but he was also coming off a season that ended with him chucked off of a team coached by the NBA’s president of its coaching association.
His time in Dallas was far from memorable, both for him and the Mavericks organization. The franchise cited a back injury as the impetus behind Rondo’s indefinite absence, but the writing was on the wall following a heated exchange between Carlisle and Rondo during the first half of that loss.
Rondo picked up his 200th assist this season in the opening quarter and finished with five for the game.
“He’s playing with a chip on his shoulder…” It also sounds like the story of the Mavericks not giving Rondo a piece of the playoff bonus money last season was overblown. “They’ve surrounded him with a lot of shooting, which is really important”. Pachulia fared well against Cousins in the first half, when he had 11 points and seven rebounds….
Curry would hit two 3-pointers to reduce the Kings’ deficit to a single point. This may or may not be a statement on Rondo’s impact on a group of players, as the Kings have myriad issues they’re working through, but in spite of the nice stats this has hardly been a warming turnaround for the former Celtic champion.
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Cousins was 10-of-10 from the free throw line, bringing his career total for free throws made to 1,798, moving into second place on the Kings career list for free throws made in the Sacramento era.
