Houston’s DeMarcus Cousins had an eventful night in Los Angeles.
It all started in the first quarter when the Lakers’ Markieff Morris pushed the Rockets’ Jae’Sean Tate to the ground, then Cousins stuck up for his teammate with some force and knocked Morris to the ground. Morris got up and went at Cousins (who Morris couldn’t move), then Cousins walked away and jawed a little while Morris was hot.
Morris got ejected for this, picking up one flagrant foul for knocking Tate to the ground, and a second for going at Cousins, while Cousins got just one technical foul for the incident.
Cousins was ejected just a few minutes later when LeBron James drove the lane, Cousins tried to make a swipe at the ball and instead caught LeBron in the face. Cousins got a flagrant 2 foul for that, which is not only an ejection but could bring a fine as well.
Cousins can argue he was going for the ball (and maybe to give a hard foul that sent LeBron to the line), but intent does not matter. Results do. Cousins caught LeBron in the head with his arm and that is an automatic flagrant foul, and in this case ejection.
The Lakers went on to win the game comfortably, 120-102, behind 27 points from Anthony Davis and 18 from LeBron.
