While they aren’t closing the door completely, the Golden State Warriors are moving on from DeMarcus Cousins after he suffered what was likely a season-ending injury on Monday night. Cousins injured his left leg early in the first quarter of the Warriors 135-131 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 2 of their opening round playoff series and limped off the floor into the locker room. He underwent an MRI on Tuesday, which revealed a torn a torn quadricep, sidelining him indefinitely. Warriors coach Steve Kerr confirmed on Wednesday that his center will not need surgery, but he isn’t expecting Cousins to be back in the lineup this postseason. "DeMarcus, most likely, will not be back during the playoffs,” Kerr said. “You're probably looking at a couple months' recovery, so it's unlikely. But [our medical staff] told me that there are occasions where that injury heals faster. So we're leaving the door open, obviously." Full Steve Kerr update on DeMarcus Cousins: No surgery required, rehab likely a couple months, expected to miss playoffs, but staff has told Kerr that this injury occasionally heals quicker, so they’re leaving return door open pic.twitter.com/LE7CxJhvhT — Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 17, 2019 Cousins signed a one-year deal with the Warriors last season, though he missed nearly a full year while recovering from an Achilles injury he suffered in February 2018 with the New Orleans Pelicans. The 6-foot-10 center averaged 16.3 points and 8.2 rebounds in 30 games for Golden State this season. "More than anything, I'm just crushed for DeMarcus," Kerr said. "He's been waiting his whole career for this, and then the second game he goes down after putting all that work in to recover from the Achilles. And he's had a great season for us. He's really come along the last month or so. I just feel bad for him." Story continues DeMarcus Cousins will not need surgery for his torn quad that he suffered in Game 2 of their playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. (Getty Images) With Cousins out, Kerr said he will turn to Andrew Bogut down low going forward. The 34-year-old veteran — who played four seasons with the Warriors from 2012-2016 — has played in just 11 games for Golden State this season, starting in only five of them. He’s averaged 3.5 points and five rebounds in more than 12 minutes per contest. Kerr said the biggest reason that the Warriors signed Bogut again was “just in case” something like this happened. Bogut knew that coming in when they signed him to a one-year deal in March, too, just after he finished the season with the Sydney Kings in Australia’s National Basketball League, where he was named the league’s MVP. Now that he’s been thrown into the starting lineup during the most critical point of the season, Bogut said he’s confident that he knows the Warriors’ system well enough to make a positive impact right away. "I knew I was coming in as an insurance policy to an extent," Bogut said, via ESPN. "A guy that could fit in straight away that knows the system offensively and defensively. Knows the guys ... I definitely didn't anticipate starting in the playoffs. But unfortunately you get a freak injury to Demarcus and those are the circumstances we're in." More from Yahoo Sports:<doc-sep>Well, the results of DeMarcus Cousins' MRI are in, and they're not good. As first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic, then confirmed by the Warriors, it's a torn left quad. Cousins is likely done for the rest of the postseason. As you can see, if there is any halfway positive news to cling to, it's that the injury isn't expected to require surgery, and according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, there is faint optimism that Cousins could return by the NBA Finals, should the Warriors make it that far. The Finals begin May 30th, almost exactly six weeks from Tuesday. "[It's] not impossible," Dr. Rodney Benner, an orthopaedic surgeon with The Shelbourne Knee Clinic in Indianapolis, told CBS Sports with regard to Cousins' potential availability later this postseason. "But those [quad tears] can be painful and tough to kick, similar to a hamstring. They can feel OK and then flare up again with maximum effort during return to competition." There are, of course, two prisms through which this news can be viewed: What does it mean for Cousins, and what does it mean for the Warriors? For Cousins, it's devastating. Sure, it doesn't appear that he'll need surgery, so it could be worse. But he's still, at the very least, in for a second straight stretch of tough, prolonged rehab, and as such, he once again faces an uncertain future as a 2019 free agent in what will likely be, yet again, a depressed market for his services. "This is worse for Cousins than for the Warriors," a league general manager told CBS Sports Tuesday morning. "I would never give [Cousins] a max [deal], but that is based on the person more than the talent." Indeed, that's a big part of what this season with Golden State was supposed to be about for Cousins: One, prove he was healthy, and two, prove he could drop the perceived attitude and be a contributing member of a championship team. These next two months were going to be his real showcase. His first shot at the postseason stage. Remember, for all his statistical success, Cousins had never played in the playoffs. Now, for all intents and purposes, he still hasn't. He finished with nine points, nine rebounds and a team-worst minus-17 during his 21 minutes of Golden Stats's Game 1 win over the Clippers. He went down early in the first quarter of Game 2. "It's tough, for sure," Stephen Curry said after Monday's loss. "You feel for him, considering what he's been through this last year. This is a big stage, the playoffs. He's been looking forward to this. ... Just man to man, in terms of him, what he's been through, it's tough for sure. There's no sugarcoating it at all. You hate seeing that opportunity again on this big stage taken away from him like that." As you might recall, Cousins was probably going to be in line for something close to a max contract last summer before he tore his Achilles in February of 2018. It happened just as New Orleans was starting to look dangerous with Cousins and Anthony Davis as a potential long-term, twin-tower future. Oh how things change in a blink. The Pelicans, or any other team for that matter, didn't offer anything close to the $170 million extension for which Cousins was in line, and instead he had to settle for a one-year, $5.7 million deal with Golden State. Again, the hope was that he would play well enough, and look healthy enough, with the Warriors to recoup at least a decent chunk of that money this summer. Now, teams will once again have to go on limited information as it pertains to both Cousins' health and his production, which will likely result in another round of conservative offers. Cousins did sign a max extension earlier in his career with the Kings for right about $62 million, and he's made over $78 million in his career. So he's not going to be in the soup line any time soon. But as of right now, he has, very conservatively, missed out on somewhere north of $100 million. "I believe he'll most likely be in the same boat [this summer] as last year," a league exec told CBS Sports on Tuesday. "Someone will give him part or all of their mid-level exception." That mid-level exception will be in the neighborhood of the $5.7 million he signed with Golden State for this summer. In fact, this injury might have actually increased the chances that Cousins remains with the Warriors next season. When he was playing pretty well and looking like some team was going to offer him a pretty good amount of money, the Warriors weren't going to be able to afford him. Perhaps now that has changed. All of which begs the question: Should the Warriors want Cousins back? Nothing against him. He hasn't been any sort of distraction or locker room problem. He was clearly willing to adjust his game to fit, as best he could, within the Warriors' system, and all told, he was doing a pretty decent job, having averaged 16.2 points and 8.2 rebounds in his 30 games this season. Perhaps whether Kevin Durant stays or goes would determine Golden State's interest level in retaining Cousins, but that's all down the road. The question right now is: Are the Warriors better or worse off without Cousins for the remainder of these playoffs? "Personally, I think they will be better off," a league exec told CBS Sports. "Less tension on Steve [Kerr] and the team [to fit Cousins in]. He was minus-17 in Game 1 [vs. the Clippers]. What happens next round when you're dealing with Harden and Paul?" It's a fair question. Cousins has been exploited defensively in spots this season, and a team like the Rockets would definitely have been licking their chops to get Cousins switched out onto the perimeter to guard Harden and Paul one-on-one. That said, Golden State could have seemingly used Cousins' ability to post smaller players on the offensive end with all the switching Houston does, and besides that, the Warriors' defense hasn't exactly been stellar so far in these playoffs independent of Cousins. He didn't play a single minute in the second half of Game 2, and Golden State gave up a ridiculous 85 points to the Clippers in those 24 minutes en route to blowing a 31-point lead. A lot of that credit goes to the Clippers. Lou Williams is flat-out one of the best shot-makers in all of basketball. And Montrezl Harrell is a beast. Those two dudes combined for 61 points in Game 2 after combining for 51 in Game 1. They are a problem in the pick and roll, one of the most productive duos in the league, in fact, despite both of them coming off the bench. They could very well finish one-two in the Sixth Man of the Year race. Still, championship defenses don't give up 85 points in a half. Championship teams don't commit 22 turnovers, even if a lot of them were with a giant lead when a certain amount of sloppiness might be understandable. And what about Kevin Durant only attempting eight shots? Yeah, he went to the free throw line enough to still end up with 21 points before fouling out, and yes, Patrick Beverley deserves credit as one of the all-time pains in the neck. But this is Kevin Durant we're talking about. Eight shots? Nine turnovers? In a playoff game? Look, it's important to keep perspective here. The Warriors looked pretty damn unstoppable through the first six quarters of this series. They let their guard down with a 31-point lead and got caught. There is no reason to believe they are in any kind of danger in this series against the Clippers. But then again, they haven't exactly been a model of consistency this year. Late in the regular season, I asked Kerr about the Warriors' defense, which had been absolutely average, nothing more, all season, and whether he thought they could "flip the switch" in the playoffs.<doc-sep>The loss of DeMarcus Cousins delivered a huge blow to the Golden State Warriors championship hopes, or did it? The initial reaction to watching DeMarcus Cousins fall and tear his quad against the Los Angeles Clippers was one of despair. The All-Star center was playing in his first postseason ever for the Golden State Warriors and was expected to be a key member of a championship run. If someone told you last season that Cousins would be playing with the Warriors in the 2018-19 NBA playoffs, you probably would have assumed the Dubs were sweeping through the competition. However, the Achilles injury that he suffered was something that was always in the back of everyone’s mind. Now that the Warriors are focused on progressing through the postseason without him, it’s time to look at three reasons as to why the Warriors might actually be better off without Cousins in the lineup.<doc-sep>
OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins is expected to miss the remainder of the postseason with a significant left quadriceps injury, but there’s faint optimism that he could possibly return for the NBA Finals, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Cousins, 28, underwent an MRI on Tuesday morning, and the Warriors announced he had a torn quadriceps and that he would be out indefinitely, confirming the team’s initial concerns. “There's a pretty significant quad injury,” coach Steve Kerr said after the Warriors’ Game 2 collapse in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. “We'll get an MRI [Tuesday]. But he's going to be out for … I'll just say a while because I think it's unclear right now how long he'll be out. It's significant.” Cousins sustained the injury in the first quarter, when he pursued a loose ball and his left leg gave out after getting a hand on the ball. The 6-foot-10 center immediately grabbed his left quadriceps and asked to be pulled from the game. Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins reacts after injuring his left quad in Game 2 Monday night. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) He refused assistance to the locker room by teammates and walked off on his own power to be examined with cameras catching what appeared to be a noticeable injury to his quad. The Warriors’ big man is only a few months removed from returning from a left Achilles tear that sidelined him for a year, and for the first time in his nine NBA seasons, he was experiencing his first taste of a long playoff run. “It's tough, for sure,” Stephen Curry said. “You feel for him, considering what he's been through this last year. This is a big stage, the playoffs. He's been looking forward to this. I don't know the extent of the injury at this point. Hope he gets back sooner than later. Just man to man, in terms of him, what he's been through, it's tough for sure. There's no sugarcoating it at all. You hate seeing that opportunity again on this big stage taken away from him like that.” Cousins, who averaged 16.3 points and 8.2 rebounds in 30 games this season, is facing another major blow that could conclude his season for the second consecutive year. Story continues But the Warriors also have other issues. The defending champs blew a 31-point, third-quarter lead and relinquished — for the moment — home-court advantage after losing 135-131. Now the series is even heading to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Thursday. “You just love this group,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers. “They don’t give in.” And in a sure sign of frustration with the way the game turned out, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green left the arena without addressing the media. It was the Warriors’ first playoff defeat in the shot-clock era in which they led by 15 or more points at halftime. And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Clippers became the second team in NBA history to trail by 23 or more points at the half and win. “We’re some tough guys,” Clippers owner Steve Ballmer told Yahoo Sports after the win. “Physical and mental, we’re some tough guys. Damn, I love our guys.” With the physical nature of the Clippers, a team that doesn’t have an All-Star on the roster, it wouldn’t behoove the Warriors to drag out this series. Patrick Beverley continues to be physical with Durant, delivering body shots from his head and elbows while denying him the ball. And Durant took a few hard screens, one from JaMychal Green that stung him and had him bent over in pain for a few seconds. Taking a pounding in an extended first-round series isn’t ideal for a championship favorite. Montrezl Harrell, who had 25 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for the Clippers, pulled out his JBL Pill speaker after the game in the locker room and played “Clean Up Man” by Houston’s own Willie D. It was all smiles and high-fives from the visiting team on Monday. “We’re definitely a team that doesn’t quit,” Harrell said as he sat on the podium beside Lou Williams, who had a game-high 36 points and 11 assists. “We compete and play hard all four quarters. I think we did that tonight. When we got down big, we didn't hang our heads.