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OAKLAND — If only the Warriors had to evaluate DeMarcus Cousins solely on the strength of his left quadricep muscle. Instead, the Warriors have listed DeMarcus Cousins as questionable when the Warriors play the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday for other reasons, too.
“DeMarcus is making good progress. But the timing of this whole thing is tricky because he misses two months,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said following practice on Monday. “It always takes big guys’ longer to find their rhythm. The speed of the game is so fast. If this were the regular season, this would be simple. Put him back in the starting lineup and give him his minutes and let him work his way back in and find his rhythm and it’d be an easy one. We’re going into Game 1 of the Finals.”
Therefore, the Warriors might not handle Cousins the same way they handled him when he rehabbed his surgically repaired left Achilles tendon. Then, Cousins missed the Warriors’ first 55 regular-season games before starting on Jan. 18 against the Los Angeles Clippers on a minutes restriction. The Warriors then increased Cousins’ workload gradually amid improvements with his timing, conditioning and familiarity with a new playbook and new teammates.
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The Warriors do not have such a luxury this time since they are playing in an NBA Finals. Therefore, Kerr has not definitively named Cousins his starting center. Kerr also remains open-minded on having a center rotation that could also include Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut, Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell and Jonas Jerebko. The reason? Kerr said “it’s a lot to ask” of Cousins, who has missed the Warriors’ past 14 playoffs after tearing his left quadricep muscle in Game 2 of the Warriors’ first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“There’s all kinds of factors. How’s his conditioning, but what do the matchups look like and what are we trying to accomplish?” Kerr said. “So we’ll continue to assess all of that in the coming days. We’ll decide what we’re going to do by Thursday night.”
On Wednesday, the Warriors will also formally reevaluate Cousins and Kevin Durant, whom the Warriors already ruled out for Game 1 after missing the past five playoff games with a strained right calf. Though the Warriors do not have clarity on Durant’s return, they expect him to return seamlessly after averaging a league-leading 34.2 points through 11 playoff games. As for Cousins? The Warriors are not so sure.
In the Warriors’ Game 1 win over the Clippers, Cousins had nine points on only 4-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds, six turnovers, six fouls and four assists in 21 minutes. Cousins then injured his left quadricep muscle after falling while chasing a looseball with 8:09 left in the first quarter. Before then, Cousins had shown varying progress in the regular season with his conditioning and fit with Durant, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. And, to think, Cousins had signed with the Warriors at relatively inexpensive $5.3 million in hopes to make up for his depressed free-market interest with playing a role in collecting his first NBA title.
“The good news is his body feels good and his quad feels good. He’s working his way back into shape and into rhythm,” Kerr said. “This is not a simple dynamic for him. I feel bad for him. This is one of the reasons he came to this team was to play in the playoffs and hopefully go to the Finals. Here we are. He’s just coming back with Game 1 just a few games away. It’s not an easy position to be in.”
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