Paul Westphal Mum on Cousins' Fate

PHOENIX -- Kings head coach Paul Westphal spoke to the media before his team was set to play the Suns on Sunday, but he really didn't have much to say regarding the situation with DeMarcus Cousins.

As reported by FanHouse's Sam Amick on Saturday, Cousins was removed from the team plane after a locker room altercation with teammate Donte Greene, which followed a close loss to the Thunder in which Cousins was upset with not getting the ball on the game's final play.

Cousins technically wasn't suspended, but was listed as inactive for the game in Phoenix, and did not travel with the team. A statement released by the team said only that Cousins "will not play in tonight's game at Phoenix while the organization reviews the situation that occurred in the locker room following last night's game versus Oklahoma City." Westphal basically stuck to that script when fielding questions about Cousins' absence.

Update: Cousins Fined One Game's Pay by Kings

"Well I could, but I won't," Westphal said, when asked if he could shed some light on the Cousins situation. "Unfortunately, these things take time to sort through everything. Obviously there's a problem and it's very serious or DeMarcus would be here for this game. But we want to do everything in the right order by the fairest possible evaluation and investigation into all the facts. There's really nothing that we can say other than DeMarcus is not with us tonight."

The organization hopes to make a decision by Monday on whether there will be any further disciplinary action taken against Cousins.

"That's pretty much the plan right now," Westphal said. "It'll take as long as it takes to really be fair to all parties but really the only thing that's reasonable to say right now is, there's nothing to say."

Greene, who reportedly was the one fighting with Cousins in the locker room, is with the team and will play tonight, according to Westphal. Samuel Dalembert will get the start in place of Cousins.

"It's been a big distraction," Westphal admitted. "How do you predict how people react to distractions? That's what we'll find out when we play the game."

Brett Pollakoff | Twitter: @BrettEP | E-mail: nbablog@gmail.com

Brett Pollakoff has written and edited for NBA FanHouse since serving as a founding contributor in 2006. Reporting live from games, All-Star weekend and the NBA Finals, he provides year-round coverage of the NBA.