MILWAUKEE - DeMarcus Cousins has been suspended for tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks for hitting O.J. Mayo in the groin Monday night in Dallas.
Cousins has maintained it was an accident.
"In slow motion it looks like I did on purpose," Cousins said yesterday. "But you look in real speed you see what happened. Of course it's gonna get thrown out there that I did it on purpose."
Cousins was informed last night the league was reviewing the incident (see video below).
The Kings, however, weren't informed of the league's decision until about three hours before tip-off.
That didn't give Kings coach time to prepare for not having Cousins.
"They're making the message very, very, clear that there's nothing you can do that won't be seen by our eyes," Smart said.
This is Cousins' second suspension from the NBA this season. He was suspended two games last month for confronting San Antonio television analyst Sean Elliott after a game in Sacramento.
"DeMarcus has to be a bigger man and move away from anything that may happen because what it does is it hurts our team," Smart said. "It hurts him big time but it hurts our team. A perimeter guy we might be able to fill in but with the skills that he has it really sets us back. He has to grow out of this and move beyond because it does do things to our team and we have to keep in focus what's important for the team. It's not any issue with one player but how it affects our overall team."
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