HOUSTON -- You saw it in small doses on Monday night for Team USA but in the big picture of the life and times of DeMarcus Cousins, this sequence might demonstrate why he's such a talented player.
In the middle of the second quarter of Team USA's easy 110-66 victory over Team Nigeria at the Toyota Center, there was this stretch where Cousins took over.
He pulled in a rebound over Ekene Ibekwe and the Nigerian got a little miffed at how physical Cousins was.
If this were a regular-season NBA game in December, instead of the final exhibition game before Team USA heads to Rio in August, Cousins might have shoved Ibekwe and then jumped in his face.