DeMarcus Cousins has been diagnosed with a torn left quad, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. The big man underwent an MRI on the injury earlier this morning.
The injury will “probably” keep Cousins out for the rest of the postseason, Charania tweets, but he and the team haven’t ruled out a return later in the playoffs if possible. They’ll gauge how he responds to the first two weeks of rehab.
At this stage, the rehabilitation process does not include surgery, although ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets that doctors are still in the process of determining the severity of the tear and thus the overall recovery process.
Cousins initially injured his quad chasing down a loose ball in the first quarter of Golden State’s Game 2 loss to the Clippers Monday night and although the extent of the injury wasn’t yet known at the time, head coach Steve Kerr feared that the setback was “significant”.
The non-contact injury immediately called to mind the Achilles tear that sidelined Cousins for parts of the past two seasons and spoiled a free agency period that could have otherwise seen him land a substantial, long-term contract.
Cousins famously signed with the Warriors using their $5.3 million taxpayer mid-level exception last summer.
After his torn Achilles sidelined him from January, 2018 until January, 2019, Cousins slowly began to play himself back into a rhythm. In 30 minute-capped games with the Warriors this season he averaged 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
Cousins will once again hit the open market in the summer of 2019.
