Jamal Murray was frustrated. His team was getting blown out at home and about to go down 0-2 to the Timberwolves while he was having a 3-of-18 shooting night, his calf muscle injury clearly hampering his play in the face of an elite defensive team.
Then he threw a heat pad on the court in the middle of live action during the first half (look just above the State Farm logo on this video).
Jamal Murray throws a heat pack pic.twitter.com/JDADMojQgp
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 7, 2024
Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Crew Chief Marc Davis said the referees did not see it happen, speaking to a pool reporter postgame.
“I was the lead official and I didn’t notice it was on the floor or where it came from until [Karl-Anthony] Towns scored...” Davis said. “We weren’t aware it had come from the bench. If we would have been aware it came from the bench, we could have reviewed it under the hostile act trigger. The penalty would have been a technical foul.”
Davis added that Murray would not have been ejected for the incident unless the referees believed he had thrown it at someone specific and not just out of frustration.
Murray left the building without talking to reporters for the second consecutive game. Nuggets coach Michael Malone said it happened outside his field of vision and he didn’t see anything. However, Minnesota coach Chris Finch called Murrays’ actions “dangerous” and “inexcusable.” Here is Finch’s full quote, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“We tried to impress upon [the referees] there probably aren’t many fans in the building that have a heat pack, so it probably had to come from the bench, which they found logical,” Finch said. “I’m sure it was a mistake and an oversight and nothing intentional by the officiating at all, but certainly can’t allow that to happen.”
If the penalty for this would have been a technical and not an ejection, expect the league to hit Murray with a fine and not a suspension.
Which is good for Denver, which heads to Minnesota down 0-2 and in a must-win Game 3 on the road. The Nuggets need Murray for that game, but they need a Murray that’s a lot closer to his elite, healthy self than the one we have seen in this series. Murray was able to play through his calf injury against the Lakers because they didn’t have an elite perimeter defender to shut down even a slowed Murray, but the Timberwolves have several of them.
And it has Murray frustrated.
