DeMarcus Cousins played through ankle sprain Friday against Cavs

Newly-minted All-Star DeMarcus Cousins wasn't going to miss an opportunity to prove he was worthy of the nod.

Despite a left ankle sprain that had him listed as questionable as recently as Friday morning, Cousins suited up as his Sacramento Kings lost 101-90 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cousins and LeBron James rarely checked check each other, but it marked their first meeting this season.

With James on the shelf resting a sore knee on Jan. 11, Cousins beasted on Timofey Mozgov and the Cavs, scoring 26 points with 13 rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks in a 19-point victory. That's par for the course for Cousins, who is averaging 25.4 points, 13.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.7 blocks while sporting a 25.2 player efficiency rating, which would be good for fifth in the NBA if he qualified for the leaderboard.

He doesn't qualify, but that only stands to solidify his place as a star. The Kings have gone 2-9 without Cousins and perform 19.5 points per-100 possessions worse without him on the floor, one of the largest single-player impacts in basketball.

His production was a big more muted on Friday, as he scored 21 points on 5-of-17 shooting but added 13 rebounds, four assists and five steals in the loss.