Cousins ejected in Kings' loss

DeMarcus Cousins looked confused, as if to say, "What did I do?"

But everyone at Sleep Train Arena saw what Cousins had done. And Milwaukee Bucks forward Mike Dunleavy felt it.

Cousins was ejected for a flagrant foul 2 for elbowing Dunleavy in the head in the third quarter of the Kings' 115-113 loss to the Bucks on Sunday.

The ejection was Cousins' fourth of the season, the most in the NBA.

Seconds earlier, Cousins was called for his 12th technical foul, tied for second most in the league.

The drama began unfolding with 3:34 left in the third quarter when Cousins landed awkwardly as Dunleavy tried to box him out on a fast break.

Cousins was on the court holding his left leg when a timeout was called.

Before limping to the bench, Cousins had words for Dunleavy and the Bucks' bench.

When play resumed, Cousins made a point to find Dunleavy and get in his face. Each was assessed a technical foul before the ball was inbounded.

When the ball was finally in play, Cousins elbowed Dunleavy in the back of the head as he cut through the lane with 3:26 left in the quarter.

Cousins was dominating the Bucks, who were without injured big men Larry Sanders and Ersan Ilyasova, with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

But then he headed to the locker room and left the arena without commenting.

That left Cousins' coach and teammates and Dunleavy to try to make sense of what happened.

Kings coach Keith Smart said Cousins could have scored 40 points if not for his ejection.

"Who knows what happens up there," Smart said when asked about Cousins' temperament. "I wish I could understand it and how it works, but unfortunately I'm not that kind of guy."

Dunleavy said after the game that Cousins only hurt his team with his actions.

"I'm not even going to begin to reason with someone like that," Dunleavy said. "I don't know where to begin. I don't even know what happened the first time around. I thought I was just trying to box him out, a bunch of bodies fell and collapsed, and there was a timeout. Next thing you know, he starts barking at me. We try to run a play, and he elbows me in the head. I don't know."

More Dunleavy: "He came up and confronted me about whatever. He's just always talking, always running his mouth, you know? He should leave people alone."

And still more from Dunleavy: "He came up to me and got in my face about stuff. And we're here to play basketball, and this guy's got other stuff going on, obviously."

Cousins' teammates have grown weary of answering for his mistakes.

Jason Thompson said after three seasons as Cousins' teammate, it feels as if he's giving the same answers to questions about Cousins' maturity and actions.

When asked if he was tired of discussing such situations with the media, Thompson said, "Pretty much."

"I think if you guys asked me about how we almost won the game or we could have come out to a better start in the second quarter, that would be better," Thompson said. " … Obviously it's a team sport, but I'm not a person that gives advice. People like psychologists give you a better answer than I can."

After trailing by 15 points, the Kings (22-43) had a chance late to beat the Bucks (32-29).

Jimmer Fredette intentionally missed a free-throw attempt with 4.7 seconds to play and grabbed his own rebound. He was unable to get a shot off, and Tyreke Evans missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer.

Follow The Bee's Jason Jones on Twitter @mr_jasonjones and read more about the team at www.sacbee.com/kings.

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