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Cousins Levels Up in Kings Recent Road Trip

Playing on the road is tough.

Adding more pressure to the game, the familiarity of the home court and a friendly crowd screaming its support for your squad is gone.

Starting in Brooklyn on Nov. 27, Sacramento was on the road for 11 days, ending the trip on Wednesday with a win in Dallas.

During that stretch, DeMarcus Cousins was at the very peak of his game. Boogie outperformed his season average of 28.8 points per contest, tallying 32.2 points per game while ranking as one of the top two scorers in the entire NBA.

His 3-point shooting percentage also increased during the road trip. Cousins made a whopping 43.3 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. Of the top-four overall scorers in the NBA during that same stretch, Cousins was the best from long distance.

Among the top four, James Harden followed a distant 6.3-percentage points behind Cousins, shooting at a 37-percent clip from deep. Boogie attempted an average of six shots from long distance each game, making his shooting performance even more impressive because of the larger sample size.

Offensive categories weren’t the only statistics that shined for the superstar during his six-game stretch on the road. Cousins also outperformed his season average in rebounds, posting 13.2 boards per game away from Sacramento, an improvement to his season average of 10.6. His stellar rebounding was not just on one side of the ball either, as both his defensive and offensive rebounding numbers showed an increase.

No. 15 also outperformed his season averages on the defensive side of the court. At 1.6 per game, he notched about a half steal more per game during the road trip, while averaging 2.4 blocks - an entire block better than his season average of 1.4.

Advanced statistics also support his improvement on defense. For the season, Boogie’s defensive rating is 106.3 points allowed per 100 possessions. During the road trip, he helped allow nearly eight points less, posting a defensive rating of 98.6.

Fans are now hoping he duplicates his recent performances for the home crowd at Golden 1 Center.


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