We began Monday talking about Rudy Gobert’s first baby and spent Tuesday discussing Jamal Murray acting like a toddler.
Is it any wonder the Nuggets trail 2-0 in the Western Conference semifinals?
They have dissolved before our eyes against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Unable to match their opponent’s physicality, the Nuggets stamped their feet and sought a life raft from the officials in Game 2.
The only thing more embarrassing than the final score was the Nuggets’ actions. After stating their case eloquently in the first quarter, especially coach Michael Malone, the pleading should have been beneath them. We can all agree there were multiple bad calls and no calls. But let the fans roar in disgust. Instead, the Nuggets made it a convenient excuse for getting their ears boxed.
The Timberwolves respect the champion but do not fear them, running over, through and around them.
Rather than counterpunch, the Nuggets responded like the Lakers, throwing their arms in the air and clapping their hands sarcastically with whistles.
And that was their best behavior.
What Murray did in the second quarter was appropriately summed up by Timberwolves coach Chris Finch as “inexcusable and dangerous.”
Murray deserved a one-game suspension. The league, not surprisingly, did not have the stomach to give it to him. Instead, Murray was fined $100,000 on Tuesday for “throwing multiple objects in the direction of a game official during live play.”
He got off easy. This is not meant as a hot take, but rather a conclusion based on the aggregate of his actions. Murray made the money sign at a referee, a gesture that netted Gobert a $100,000 fine in March. Then, Murray completely lost his composure while seated on the end of the bench. With 4:57 remaining in the second quarter, he tossed a towel in referee Marc Davis’ direction.
Even if you give Murray the benefit of the doubt that he was punching his fist in frustration and the towel came loose from his grip, he undermined his defense by what he did next.
Sixteen seconds later, he can be seen clearly in video tossing a heat pack in Davis’ direction that reached the court as players battled near the rim. It came close to Karl-Anthony Towns’ feet and was ultimately picked up by Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and flipped out of bounds.
The good news is that no one was hurt. Based on my social media feeds, many believe this excuses Murray. No harm, no foul, even though freak accidents can and do happen. His intent was to hit the official, so no big deal, right?
Well, any fan throwing an object onto the court is ejected. How is this different? In fact, after Murray’s heat pad toss, the PA announcer reminded the crowd of the rules, figuring that is how the object ended up on the floor. I wonder if Murray wanted to get tossed. We remain unsure because he left Monday without addressing the media.
Davis, the crew chief, indicated that had he known Murray fired the heat pack, he would have received a technical foul, but not an ejection. An ejection, per Davis, requires a determination that the object was “thrown directly at somebody versus thrown in frustration.”
That is a reason why many NBA experts believe Murray escaped suspension. There is no specific rule against what he did. Do we really require section A, Roman numeral V to remind players that they cannot toss objects onto the court during live action?
Its absence represents more of a loophole than logic.
In a moment of anger, Murray endangered players. It would have been easy to ban him for Game 3. There is a bit of a precedent. The Miami Heat, in consultation with the NBA, suspended Dewayne Dedmon one game last season for hitting a chair so violently that it catapulted a theragun massage device near midcourt during live play.
Nothing, though, is ever linear with the NBA. There is always an arbitrary nature to its rulings that seem self-serving. And obviously, the league did not want the defending champ to face the Timberwolves in Game 3 without its second-best player. I hope Nuggets fans remember this if an opposing star acts this way against their team in the future.
The strongest argument for Murray only receiving a hefty fine remains his resume.
He has never been involved in anything like this. This was not Draymond Green choking a player or Patrick Beverly firing basketballs into the stands. Murray has conducted himself with character and class throughout his career.
But a fine without discipline makes it difficult to take the NBA seriously when it talks about player safety.
Murray made a shot in this postseason. He made another one. He was celebrated for both.
Then on a night when he was compromised by his left calf, leading to an awful performance, he made a mistake. He avoided a ban, so hopefully, he can learn from it and return to acting more like an adult.
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