Kings coach addresses Cousins' frustration at officiating

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Sacramento Kings coach Dave Joerger says he doesn't know if All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins is officiated differently than other players in the NBA.

Cousins expressed his frustration Tuesday night after receiving two technical fouls and being briefly ejected from a 55-point performance against Portland. The second technical was rescinded after the officials huddled, and Cousins was called back from the locker room.

He leads the league with eight technicals and implied that he's officiated differently than others.

''He's been working hard at it,'' Joerger said Wednesday before the Kings played the Utah Jazz. ''There have been a lot of times where we'll talk to the referee and say, `That didn't seem like a whole lot. It just seemed like two guys got tangled up.'

''A lot of them are double (technical fouls) where two guys get tangled up and when you look at it again, it wasn't a big deal.''

Cousins has also been called for 102 fouls this season, third-most in the NBA behind JaMychal Green and Kristaps Porzingis.

''I wish they'd just call it like a high school game,'' Joerger said. ''Set the tone in the first 5 minutes how you want to officiate and go from there. He's not easy to officiate. He creates a lot of contact and people bump him, just like they do with all the bigs.''

The Kings issued a ''substantial fine'' to Cousins earlier Tuesday for a recent altercation with a Sacramento Bee reporter.