DALLAS – Denver Nuggets winger Jamal Murray was ejected after a deliberate shot hit the groin area of Tim Hardaway Jr.’s Dallas Mavericks in the second half of their game Monday night.
Murray stumbled backwards after the pair collided when Denver took offense. Murray stood up and stuck his right arm between Hardaway’s legs, asking Hardaway to double down.
The official who was closest to the contact blew the whistle to stop the game with 4:51 left in the third quarter and met with the other referees. The initial call was a bug on Murray, and it was upgraded to a flagrant bug 2 on a video review.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after his team’s 117-113 victory that he did not see a repeat of the incident, but that Zach Zarba, the crew chief, told him that the decision to commit the offense to upgrade to a blatant 2 ‘was pretty obvious’.
“Hopefully this is nothing more than throwing Jamal out tonight and we can use that as a learning experience,” Malone said.
Murray scored 16 points when he was sent off, which was the same team from halftime.
The Nuggets took an 80-73 lead when the game was stopped, and Hardaway scored the next seven points in just 23 seconds to get the Mavericks even before taking their first lead since early in the first quarter. The Nuggets, however, crowded together.
‘Just play the game and I think [Murray] was just frustrated because they did not mention a foul, “Hardaway said.” I tried to do my best to deny the ball. The rest speaks for itself. It happens in the game. It struggles, but it makes up “This stage doesn’t even matter. We lost.”
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.