Fed up: Kings see Luke Walton ‘has your back’; Scott Brooks rips Wizards ‘a new one’
Kings coach Luke Walton tried using subtlety over the past few months to make the point that his players don’t get enough foul calls. He took a different approach this time, storming onto the court to confront referee Derrick Collins during Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Wizards at Golden 1 Center.
Walton was ejected during a disastrous third quarter for the Kings. Wizards coach Scott Brooks did some inspired coaching at halftime, so the Wizards charged back from a 28-point deficit to tie the game four times, but Walton was gone by then. He had to watch from somewhere else as the Kings responded to his show of emotion, fighting back for a 133-126 win that put them in sole possession of ninth in the Western Conference playoff race, three games behind the Memphis Grizzlies.
“When your coach goes out, you’re trying to win the game for him,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox said. “… When you know you have a head coach like that who has your back … you definitely want to win that game even more.”
The Wizards felt the same way after listening to Brooks at halftime. They were down by 27 after allowing the Kings to shoot 60.8 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from 3-point range. Brooks went off on his team at halftime.
“He ripped us a new one for sure,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal said. “I can’t say any of the words he said, but I think we got the message for sure.”
The Wizards staged a 19-0 run to tie the game on a 3-pointer by Davis Bertans. They had already started that run when Walton was ejected with 6:13 to play in the third quarter.
Walton’s apparent frustration with the officiating seemed to grow throughout the game until he finally became irate. He has finessed his messaging for months while making the point that officials miss many of the fouls on his players. Fox, in particular, has a courageous tendency to venture into the chomping jaws of the defense and hit the floor without a whistle, but this time it was Cory Joseph.
Walton wasn’t made available to the media after the game to talk about his night, but it seemed he was incensed by what he felt was a missed call on Joseph midway through the third quarter. As the Wizards came down the floor toward the Kings bench for a layup to get within eight after trailing 76-49 at the half, Walton decided he had seen enough.
He marched onto the floor and voiced his frustration to Collins, immediately got hit with a technical foul and then earned another when he pushed past Harrison Barnes to yell at Collins some more. The second technical resulted in an automatic ejection.
As Walton stomped out of the arena, Kings center Harry Giles III slapped him on the behind. Marvin Bagley III patted him on the back. Many of the fans and a female usher in the hallway offered their applause for the outburst.
“I think it was awesome,” Joseph said. “He’s a passionate guy. He wants to win games. … He kind of just blew up a little bit, but that sparked us. That got us going, like ‘Oh shoot, he’s bringing that energy more than us right now, so we’ve got to pick it up.’”
Giles produced a couple of big baskets to help the Kings reclaim the lead as they regained control early in the fourth quarter. The Kings finished with a 14-10 advantage in free-throw attempts in the fourth after being outshot 13-4 in the third.
Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic credited Walton with helping them hold on for an important win, even if he wasn’t around to see it.
“For sure, he fired us up,” Bogdanovic said. “… It was a good move. I respect that.”
Joseph felt the same way.
“It’s always good when you’re a player and you feel like things aren’t going your way out there, and then the coach has your back,” Joseph said. “Guys want to play hard for coaches like that.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 6:51 AM.
