Barber: Quad tear a cruel blow to Warriors' DeMarcus Cousins

The games can be uplifting, as they were a week ago when the University of Virginia men’s basketball team, a year after suffering one of the worst humiliations in basketball history, rebounded to win the national championship. The games can be compelling, as they were on Sunday when a humbled, human version of Tiger Woods stormed back to win his first golf major in 11 years. The games can be comical, as they were last week when St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna scaled the outfield fence for a deep fly, only to land on his face when the ball touched down on the warning track.

But sometimes the game is merely cruel.

Cruelty struck about 3 minutes and 20 seconds into the Warriors’ epic 135-131 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, just after DeMarcus Cousins had jumped a lazy Clippers pass and tipped it toward the far basket. Cousins pushed the ball ahead of him and, if not exactly a blur of speed, looked destined for a fast-break dunk. Then the image pixelated.

Cousins went down in front of the Warriors bench, and immediately clutched at the front of his left leg. He remained on the floor as the other nine men played on. When he got up, teammate Andrew Bogut rose to help him down the tunnel to the team locker room, but Cousins refused the offer. Maybe he was trying to convince himself this was no big deal.

The Warriors proceeded without Cousins, went ahead by 31 points and ultimately collapsed. There was so much to unpack after the loss that Cousins became an afterthought. It was another mark of the cruelty. The game waits for no man. If you are too old, or too slow, or too unlucky - or if you are hurt - it goes on without you.

A photo from the tunnel made Cousins’ upper leg look like a dinosaur’s forehead, and an MRI exam made it official Tuesday. The center has a torn left quadriceps muscle. No one knows whether he’ll play again this season.

Cousins’ postseason journey has come to a halt, almost before it had started.

This is a vicious blow to someone who had worked for most of 2018 to come back from an Achilles tear - in the same leg he hurt Monday - and had labored through nine NBA seasons for a chance to taste the playoffs.

“The guy’s been waiting for this moment his entire life, his entire career, and he’s finally here,” Kerr said to a TNT sideline reporter during Monday’s game. “So we’re all just devastated to see the injury.”

Under practically any rubric you could devise, Cousins was the most accomplished NBA player never to have experienced the postseason. He had played in 565 games, scored 12,006 points, grabbed 6,131 rebounds, made four All-Star teams. He was seemingly en route to the playoffs with New Orleans in 2018 until his Achilles tendon pulled from the heel bone during a game in January of that year.

“You think about when the injury happened, he’s getting ready to sign a max or near-max contract, whether with New Orleans or somebody else,” Kerr reflected back in January. “It’s a life-changing amount of money. Not to mention the gratification that comes with being one of the best players in the world and an All-Star, and right in his prime. And that all went down the drain for him. So think about that.”

Except think about it in the present tense.

Cousins’ playoff void was one of the big reasons he signed with the Warriors, below market value, last summer. And he finally got his wish Saturday when he took center court for the Game 1 tipoff at Oracle Arena.

He was terrible. Cousins played 21 minutes that night. He scored just nine points on 4-of-12 shooting, committed six turnovers and fouled out with 7:16 left. The Warriors were outscored by 19 points when Cousins was on the floor, a remarkable number for a team that won by 17.

After that game, Cousins did his best to play downplay the significance of his flop.

Was he nervous? “Nah.”

What had he felt? Excitement? “Nothing. I was good.”

But considering the stakes, and the waiting period Cousins had endured to get there, it’s easy to imagine he was overhyped for Game 1. The world awaited his response in Game 2.

“I think DeMarcus coming off a subpar game for him in Game 1, I think he’ll bounce back and be much better,” Kerr said before Monday’s game.

Cousins didn’t bounce. The game was less than 4 minutes old when his quad gave way. He had missed one field-goal attempt, made two free throws, grabbed a couple rebounds. The Clippers led by a point.

Cousins earned a D-minus in Game 1. We have to give him an Incomplete for Game 2. And perhaps for the remainder of these playoffs.

I don’t have any particular affinity for Boogie Cousins. He can be honest and funny at times. He can also come across as sullen. He has had run-ins with the press that made his seem like a bully. But he doesn’t deserve this setback. No athlete would.

I remember Cousins talking about his Achilles rehab at the Warriors’ media day, way back on Sept. 25. “It’s been hard,” he said. “I’d be lying if I told you anything different. It’s taken a lot of dedication. I learned a lot about myself. It’s been a grind, man.”

And the grind was far from over at that point. It would take Cousins nearly four more months to see game action. Even then, Kerr worked him in slowly.

“Before he came back, when he was rehabbing, he was not that much fun to coach,” Kerr said before the Warriors played the Nuggets on April 2. “He would agree with that. He was so frustrated from the injury, and from not being able to play, and the length of his rehab. Since he returned and has grown comfortable with his role, he’s been amazing to coach. … You see his frustration and his passion on the court, so people automatically sort of attach labels to him. What I see is passion and emotion, because he wants to win.”

Saturday, around the time of Game 1, Showtime premiered “The Resurgence: DeMarcus Cousins,” a video chronicle of the player’s comeback. The 3-minute trailer provides a small window into the arduousness of Cousins’ physical therapy. He curses when his foot slips while he’s doing a sort of prone leg press. He gets frustrated and swats the ball at a wall when he loses the handle while dribbling on the move. He sweats and pants as he confronts treadmill, weights, ropes. He lowers his head and rubs his left ankle.

“You’ve gotta go through a storm,” Cousins says, the trailer pausing for dramatic effect, “before you find some sunshine.”

And now, another storm. For Cousins, again, the sunshine is a faint glow in the distance.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: ?@Skinny_Post.