Jeff Zillgitt

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO – A familiar storyline plays out each time the U.S. men’s basketball team plays in a major international competition.

It takes time for the NBA players to adjust to FIBA officiating, and that’s evident after three U.S. games at the Rio Olympics.

DeMarcus Cousins fouled out against Venezuela on Monday and picked up two quick fouls against Australia on Wednesday. Klay Thompson and Paul George went to the bench with two first-quarter fouls against Australia.

“It’s definitely a different game. We’ve just got to adjust to it,” George said Thursday.

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Cousins is frustrated. He played just nine minutes against Venezuela and 10 minutes against Australia.

“I just told him, 'You're a human being. You should be frustrated. Let's just move on to the next thing and see if we can handle that going forward because we need you,’ ” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

The U.S. (3-0) plays Serbia (1-2) on Friday in group play with another chance to adapt to international refs, who are picked from leagues all over the world to officiate the Olympics. One NBA ref, Steve Anderson, is calling games in Rio.

Why it’s difficult to explain the difference between NBA officiating and FIBA officiating is not easy.

“It’s kind of weird. I can’t even explain it,” Kevin Durant said.

Carmelo Anthony, who is playing in his fourth Olympics and going for his third goal medal, said, “You can’t pinpoint it.”

But he tried. “In the NBA, the refs see the same guys over and over,” Anthony said. “In international play, they don’t see us like that, and they don’t know our tendencies.”

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It’s the “I Know When I See It” theory, and Krzyzewski said players become more familiar FIBA refs through experience.

“It’s not like you’re complaining about calls. I’m not,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s a different call. It’s a different way of doing it. … It’s just different. Anything that’s different takes time to instinctively react to it.”

Krzyzewski acknowledges that he reacts to FIBA officials differently than he reacts to ACC refs. When Andrew Bogut knocked Kyrie Irving out of bounds in the second half of Wednesday’s game, Krzyzewski had a conversation with the ref instead of yelling.

“Doing this for 11 years, at least for that moment, I'm able to not overreact, and rather, ask an official,” he said.

He wants to know why it was called a certain way so he can explain it to his players.

The U.S. also instructs players to react differently to calls in international games. FIBA officials are less likely to tolerate complaining.

FIBA refs don’t like to hear anything from anyone on the bench other than the head coach. Often, you can see a FIBA ref instructing people on the bench to sit down or glare at players or assistants saying something to them from the sideline.

“Those officials, it's an honor for them to ref in the Olympics, and it's an honor for them to ref our game. By doing something, we might disrespect them,” Krzyzewski said. “You don't want to do that with anybody.”

Krzyzewski made clear to player that officials are not out to get the U.S.

“They're not cheating us is what I tell the guys. Don't ever get into that,” he said. “They're not cheating us. We just have to react to it differently. Over 10 years ago, we all were saying, 'We're getting cheated.' We've not bought into that for a decade, and we're not going to do it now.”