No Oxes will be running vs. Denver tonight.
Eight hours prior to tip-off vs. the Denver Nuggets tonight, the league announced that Kings big man Domantas Sabonis has received a one-game suspension for following his ejection vs. the New York Knicks on Monday night. The ejection occurred with 4:35 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of what was a terrible outing for the Kings.
Per the NBA, Sabonis’ quick-fire double techinal fouls that led to his eventual ejection were due to bumping the referee in a “hostile manner’”
The incident began with Sabonis receiving a technical foul for an unsportsmanlike reaction to a called foul. Sabonis then reacted demonstratively again in the vicinity of the game officia, and approached and bumped the official in a hostile manner, resulting in a second techinal foul and an ejection.
Sabonis’ heat-of-the-moment exit came after the Kings lost their second 20-point lead in consecutive games, down near 30 points to the Knicks after having an emphatic start to the game. It was a meltdown of all meltdowns, and the icing on the cake was the Ox erupting in what NBA fans as something they had never seen from him before.
The one-game suspension will be served tonight against the Nuggets, and Sabonis will not have to pay any fines to go alongside the initial punishment.
Sacramento will be even more short-handed at the center spot tonight, without Sabonis and Richaun Holmes who is missing his second straight game due to personal reasons. It’s a tough blow for the Kings who simply cannot seem to catch a break in the last two weeks.