NBA: Jamal Murray fined $100,000 for tossing objects onto court during semi-finals

Denver Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray has been fined $100,000 for throwing things toward a referee during Monday night’s conference semi-finals loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

What happened during the match?

Murray was seated at the far end of Denver’s bench when he hurled the object onto the court with about 4:40 left in the second quarter as Timberwolves big man and fellow Kentucky Wildcats alum Karl-Anthony Towns drove for a layup. There wasn’t a call on Murray, but a warning from the public address announcer to the crowd not to throw objects onto the floor.

.@Timberwolves sacó a @Nuggets de sus casillas hasta el punto que Jamal Murray lanzó el calentador muscular a la cancha en pleno juego.
Peligrosísimo hasta para compañeros.
Podrían suspenderlo para el tercer partido en Minny el viernes.
De mal en peorpic.twitter.com/oqWSGlHW1F
— Álvaro Martín (@AlvaroNBAMartin) May 7, 2024

Several seconds before he threw the heat pack onto the court. Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope picked up the pad, tossed it to the sidelines and play continued without any whistle from the referees. Murray was observed tossing a towel in Davis’ direction. The towel landed at Davis’ heels and somebody sitting on the side-line got up and quickly removed the towel. Davis never noticed. But If he had noticed it could’ve been reviewed under the hostile act trigger. However, Murray would’ve been subject to a technical foul, not an ejection.

Murray was not the only one wo lose temper

Denver’s second straight loss to the Wolves in the Western Conference semi-finals had the team showing their frustrations on the court ahead of the 106-80 defeat, dropping them to a 0-2 deficit in the series.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone was so irritated at a no-call after Towns bulldozed through Murray for a layup that he ran onto the court and began yelling at referee Marc Davis. That sort of demonstration in the regular season would’ve drawn Malone at least one technical and possibly an ejection. But there was no whistle.

Action and reactions against Murray’s action

The NBA announced the fine on Tuesday in a release from Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations. The NBA said Murray was “throwing multiple objects in the direction of a game official during live play” in the second game of the series.

Minnesota coach Chris Finch called Murray’s act “dangerous” and “inexcusable” after the game and said the Wolves attempted to reason with the officiating crew to adjudicate the incident.

Murray’s performance in games

Murray who finished Game 2 with 8 points on 3-for-18 shooting, 13 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 turnovers exited the arena without speaking to reporters, according to a Nuggets spokesperson. He’s struggled to find his form this postseason as he continues to deal with a calf strain, shooting just 37.5% from the field through seven playoff games.