Watch: Inexplicable back-to-back NBA cheap shots draw 5-figure fines
The tanking Phoenix Suns got plastered 116-88 by the surging Utah Jazz on Thursday, and it looks like two of their players are about to get plastered with big fines for their role in the game getting chippy in the third quarter.
Forwards Marquese Chriss and Jared Dudley saw their tempers boil over after a perceived cheap shot from the Jazz’s Ricky Rubio, leading to a flagrant 2 for Dudley and an ejection.
Watching the video, it looks like Chriss tried to take it up for a dunk without accounting for the guy between him and the basket, leading to a strong candidate for next week’s “Shaqtin’ a Fool” segment on “Inside the NBA.”
Things escalated after Dudley appeared to try to clothesline Rubio on the way back up the floor, and as Rubio recovered from the hit, Chriss came up on his blindside and treated him the way a linebacker treats a quarterback.
Even the Jazz mascot was ready to rumble with the Suns after the ensuing timeout:
The Jazz Bear was ready to throw down with the Suns to defend Ricky Rubio 😭😭😭pic.twitter.com/jpKwnP6jmH
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) March 16, 2018
Making matters worse, Rubio suffered a knee contusion as a result of the hit, which might have ultimately tipped the league’s hand and forced the $25,000 fines.
Phoenix is 19-52 and playing out the string of a lost season; since Jan. 19, the team is just 2-23. The Suns’ only wins were, in the sense of tanking for a draft pick, losses; they beat 22-48 Dallas and 19-50 Memphis.
They would, however, have the top chance of getting the first overall pick in the NBA draft lottery if the season ended today, after Memphis snapped a 19-game losing streak Saturday night with a win over Denver.
The Grizzlies’ last win before that streak? Against Phoenix, on Jan. 29; they were winless in February.
Utah, meanwhile, has won nine in a row and 21 of its last 23, losing only to Houston and Portland, the first and third seeds in the current Western Conference standings.
Left for dead after a loss to Atlanta pushed them to 19-28 and put them in 10th place Jan. 22, the Jazz started winning and have kept winning, rising all the way to fifth place after Saturday’s win over the Sacramento Kings.
Rubio appears to be OK as well; he does not show up on the team’s injury report and led the team in plus/minus at plus-27 in the Kings game.
To tank is just part of the game, at least until 2019, when the NBA’s new draft lottery odds rules designed to combat disgracing the game kick in.
Here is an ESPN graphic on how NBA Draft lottery odds change in 2019 pic.twitter.com/Jk8X7q0J3Z
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 28, 2017
Putting a lineup of players out there to fight the good fight even though they’re grotesquely outmatched like a G-League team is on some level part of developing a young core like the one Phoenix has built through the draft.
But injuring other players on the playoff contenders after your own season is a lost cause?
The league needs to come down hard on that.
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