Kings at Magic
The Sacramento Kings are a different team when DeMarcus Cousins is on the floor and attacking, and when the referees allow him to attack. Cousins will try to avoid another foul-plagued effort when the Kings close out the Southeast Division portion of their five-game road trip by visiting the Orlando Magic on Thursday.
Cousins did not have any personal fouls at the start of the fourth quarter on Tuesday at Miami but picked up his sixth with just over 30 seconds left - on his third offensive foul of the quarter - and watched the final seconds of regulation and overtime from the bench in a 108-96 setback. Cousins, who would have scored the go-ahead basket if not for the last offensive foul call, totaled 17 personal fouls in the last three games and picked up his third technical foul of the season on Tuesday. Cousins did battle with Dwight Howard and Hassan Whiteside in the first two games of the road trip and will have to find his way around another top center in Orlando's Nikola Vucevic, who went for 24 points and 14 rebounds as the Magic rallied from an 18-point deficit to earn their first win, 103-101 at Philadelphia on Tuesday. "I’m just really proud of the way we kept fighting and kept trying to find a way," Vucevic told reporters. "It was really tough at the end, but we got lucky a little bit. It was a great way for us to win and it helped our confidence for sure."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN California (Sacramento), FSN Florida (Orlando)
ABOUT THE KINGS (2-3): Cousins is averaging 26.8 points in large part because he is attacking the basket and drawing contact. The 26-year-old Kentucky product is attempting an average of 13.4 free throws in the first week of the season, with Monday's 1-of-3 effort the only time attempting fewer than 14, and connecting at a 77.6-percent clip. Cousins could use more help from his teammates as Rudy Gay added 30 points on Tuesday but starters Matt Barnes (0-of-7) and Ty Lawson (1-of-6) combined for two points and Arron Afflalo went 1-of-5 from beyond the arc.
ABOUT THE MAGIC (1-3): Serge Ibaka got off to a bit of a slow start in his tenure with Orlando but started to come on in a loss at Cleveland on Saturday and turned in a season-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting on Tuesday. Ibaka, who was acquired in a draft night trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder, buried two free throws in the closing seconds after being the victim of a flagrant foul and taking a hard fall to give the Magic the two-point win over the 76ers. "I had pain in my shoulder, but I wasn’t worried about that pain, I was worried about that free throw because I knew that was big-time for us," Ibaka told reporters. "I wasn’t thinking at all about what pain I was having. I was just focusing on making those free throws."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Magic PG Elfrid Payton turned in his first double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 assists on Tuesday.
2. Sacramento SF Omri Casspi (illness) sat out Tuesday and is day-to-day.
3. The teams split two meetings last season, with each winning on the other's home floor.