‘That’s the fight we need’: Four players ejected after altercation in Kings-Rockets game
Tempers flared during an altercation that led to the ejection of four players in the Kings’ 139-114 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday night at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
The fracas occurred with 11:09 to play in the fourth quarter when Kings guard Malik Monk took exception to a personal foul committed by Rockets guard Garrison Mathews. Both players were pursuing a loose ball when Mathews threw a left shoulder block into Monk, who was running in full stride.
Officials whistled Mathews for a foul, but Monk wasn’t satisfied. He walked up behind Mathews and punched the ball out of his hands, leading to a nose-to-nose confrontation and a heated exchange of words. Players from both sides joined the fray, mostly in an effort to separate Mathews and Monk.
“It happens,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “It’s a tense environment in a basketball game. They want to win. We want to win and sometimes stuff like that happens. You wish that nobody gets hurt, which didn’t happen, and then you hope nobody gets kicked out or suspended in situations like that.”
The game was delayed for several minutes while officials reviewed the play and the ensuing altercation. They determined Kings forward Chimezie Metu had acted as an “escalator” and Rockets forward Tari Eason acted as an “instigator.” Mathews, Monk, Metu and Eason were all given technical fouls and automatic ejections.
Kings center Domantas Sabonis offered his thoughts on the exchange after recording a triple-double with 19 points, 15 rebounds and 16 assists.
“We’re all professionals,” Sabonis said. “We know Malik felt some type of way about what happened on that play. The good thing is it didn’t escalate into anything bad and nobody got hurt.”
Kings forward Harrison Barnes said he didn’t mind seeing some fight from his team.
“We had no issue with it,” Barnes said. “Obviously, Malik has some fire. Mezie went to go protect him. I won’t call it a scuffle, but some words were exchanged between a bunch of guys, but at the end of the day, that’s the fight that we need as a team. That’s the fight we need for this season and that’s the fight we’re going to need for the playoffs, so I’m all for it.”
