NBA issues fines, suspensions for altercation between Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets
Three players were fined and two others suspended as a result of an altercation that occurred in the fourth quarter of the Kings’ 139-114 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday night at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Joe Dumars, the NBA’s head of basketball operations, announced Sunday that Kings guard Malik Monk, Rockets guard Garrison Mathews and Rockets forward Tari Eason have been fined for their roles in the melee. In addition, Rockets guard Jalen Green and forward Jae’Sean Tate have been suspended one game without pay for leaving the bench area during an on-court altercation.
The league said Mathews was fined $35,000 for initiating the altercation and taunting Monk. Monk was fined $25,000 for continuing the altercation and taunting Mathews. Eason was fined $30,000 for escalating the altercation and making inadvertent contact with a game official.
Green and Tate will serve their suspensions when the Rockets visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
The incident occurred when Mathews fouled Monk as both players were pursuing a loose ball with 11:09 to play in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game. After video review, Mathews, Eason, Monk and Kings forward Chimezie Metu were called for technical fouls and ejected. Metu was not fined or suspended for his role in the altercation.
Kings coach Mike Brown addressed the situation after the game.
“It happens,” 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.”
Kings center Domantas Sabonis and forward Harrison Barnes were also asked about the confrontation.
“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.”
Barnes said it was good to see 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.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2023 at 1:06 PM.
