DeMarcus Cousins continued his dominant play against the Blazers. This was Cousins 8th 30 point game of the season, of which three have come against Portland. Cousins probably could have had 40+ points himself, but missed a few close shots that touched almost every part of the rim before popping out. He also was uncharacteristically bad at the line, going just 9-15. Portland even tried a "Hack-a-Cousins" strategy at one point, and Cousins responded to the disrespect by swishing both.

Let's start with the officials. I have a theory that the NBA sent their refs in need of training/seasoning to Sacramento for this home stand because over the last three games the officiating has been appalling. In the previous two games, the Kings defense actually managed to be worse than the officials so it wasn't really a deciding factor. Last night it almost was, as the refs blew several important calls that nearly cost the Kings the game. Wes Matthews got away with a travel to draw a foul on Gay. Gay got called for his sixth foul for barely touching Batum off the ball. The most egregious error was of course when Damian Lillard drew three free throws after getting fouled by Isaiah Thomas with 16 seconds to go and Sacramento up by 5. Lillard pump faked, but Isaiah went to the side rather than jump straight up. Lillard deliberately jumped into Thomas to draw contact and the refs called it for three shots, cutting the game to just two. Fortunately the Kings were able to make their own free throws in response and Lillard then missed a couple threes in a row to end the game.

There were 86 combined free throws in this game. Portland had 36 and the Kings had a whopping 50. I'm not sure what the record for most free throws in a game is, but this has to be up there, at least in the Sacramento-era.

Random Observations: