Cousins Stars

DeMarcus Cousins had his best game since the All-Star break, matching his season high with 28 points. Cousins also had 11 rebounds and four assists. So even though the Kings lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 107-102 in front of an announced crowd of 12,286, those in attendance saw the Cousins the Kings are high on.

The past two weeks hadn't been easy for Cousins, who averaged 9.4 points in five games since the break and lost his starting center job to Samuel Dalembert.

Cousins' struggles shooting led to questions about whether he'd hit the so-called rookie wall, when first-year players start to fatigue during an 82-game NBA regular season.

Cousins has not said he'd hit a wall and wasn't using Wednesday's game as proof he'd broken through one.

"Y'all got y'all opinions," Cousins said. "I'm just going to play ball."