Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was fined $100,000 by the NBA but avoided a suspension for “throwing multiple objects on court during live play.
Murray tossed a towel and a heat pack onto the court late in the second quarter of Denver’s 106-80 loss to Minnesota that gave the Timberwolves a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series that shifts to Minneapolis this weekend.
By halftime, the Nuggets were falling to Minnesota by 28 points and Murray sat at the end of Denvers’ bench. TNT wasted no time in showing replays of Murray tossing things onto the court.
Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope retrieved the heat pack and tossed it aside as the public-address announcer admonished the crowd not to throw any objects onto the court.
Officiating crew chief Marc Davis told a pool reporter after the game that the officials were unaware the object had come from the bench.
Otherwise, “we could have reviewed it under the hostile act trigger. The penalty would have been a technical foul.”
“We tried to impress upon (the officials) that there’s probably not many fans in the building that have a heat pack. So, it probably had to come from the bench,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said after the game.
Murray left the arena without speaking to reporters and Nuggets coach Michael Malone deflected when he was asked. He said he wasn’t aware that Murray had been the culprit.
Several seconds before he threw the heat pack onto the court, Murray was observed tossing a towel in Davis’ direction. The towel landed at Davis’ heels and somebody sitting on the sideline got up and quickly removed the towel, but Davis never noticed.
