After a 29-point outburst in the immediate aftermath of the DeMarcus Cousins trade, Willie Cauley-Stein has been somewhat quiet. He’s had some decent games, but nothing that makes you say to yourself “I’m currently observing the center of the future for the Kings”. Not until this game. Twenty points and thirteen rebounds will definitely make you utter that phrase. I uttered it myself after he caught that lob with fifteen seconds left in regulation. I couldn’t stop myself. Watching northern California’s answer to DeAndre Jordan can have that effect on me.
The two-man combo of Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos seemed to work better than it looks on paper, since WCS was regularly able to exploit mismatches with smaller power forwards. Is it possible that the Kings have their own version of the twin towers? Probably not because Koufos usually sucks a little bit, but it’s fun when it works for one game.