Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets did not have an especially good time during the first half of Game 2 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Already facing a 0-1 hole in their Western Conference Semifinal series, Denver got completely ran off of their home floor in the first half by the Rudy Gobert-less Wolves, as Minnesota took a shocking, 61-35 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Wolves’ defense was ferocious, while the referees were letting a lot of contact go. That’s not a recipe that works in Denver’s favor, because when Minnesota can envelop opposing teams, you get to see why they had the No. 1 defense in the NBA. And no one was more frustrated with this than Jamal Murray, who usually wears his emotions on his sleeve but was especially frustrated with how things were going. In fact, while sitting on the bench during the second quarter, the cameras caught something getting thrown onto the floor from the Nuggets’ bench area.
After further examination, it appeared that Murray — presumably because he was unhappy that Karl-Anthony Towns did not get called for a travel — took a heat pack and threw it onto the floor.
It stands to reason that Murray wasn’t actively trying to throw it, but rather, it was in his hand and it just slipped out while he was expressing his discontent towards the referees. Still, it’s not a stretch to say that he’s fortunate that the refs took this as an accident and not something malicious, because it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where he would’ve gotten kicked out for this.