Wizards’ Thomas gets 2-match ban over frosty fan row in Philly
WASHINGTON Wizards guard Isaiah Thomas was suspended for two games without pay by the National Basketball Association on Sunday for entering the spectator stands to confront hecklers, the league announced.
Thomas was ejected with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter of Washington’s 108-125 loss at Philadelphia on Saturday after confronting the 76ers’ fans in the stands for what he later said were obscene comments and gestures.
NBA rules dictate ejections and potential fines and suspensions for players who enter the spectator areas during games — measures aimed at preventing altercations or hostile interactions between fans and players.
The verbal encounter between Thomas and the spectators did not escalate.
Two spectators involved in the incident with Thomas have been banned by the 76ers from the team arena for one year and had their season tickets revoked as a result of the confrontation.
Thomas said after the game that after he missed the first of two free throws but then made the second, the fan screamed an obscene phrase at him three times. Thomas said he waited for a time-out. “I go in the stands, to confront him. I said, ‘Don’t be disrespectful. I’m a man before anything, and be a fan’,” Thomas said. “And his response was, ‘Sorry, I just wanted a Frosty.’”
The Wells Fargo Center operates a promotion with a fast-food company called the “Frosty Freeze-Out.” If a visiting player misses two consecutive free throws fans receive a free small cup of the frozen desert.
Thomas will serve his suspension when the Wizards visit New York today and Detroit on Thursday. He will be able to return when the Wizards host New York next Saturday.
Thomas, 30, is averaging 13.6 points, 4.8 assists and 1.7 rebounds a game for the Wizards, who are 8-20 after three consecutive losses.
Elsewhere, with LeBron James sidelined by a muscle strain, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered their most lopsided loss of the season as injury fears were raised about star big man Anthony Davis.
Paul Millsap scored 21 points, Nikola Jokic added 18 and Will Barton had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Denver in a 128-104 road victory over the Western Conference-leading Lakers.
The Nuggets (20-8) won their sixth straight game to pull within three games of the Lakers (24-6), who dropped their third game in a row.
James missed his first game of the season due to a thoracic muscle strain, suffering the mid-section injury in the Lakers’ Tuesday loss at Indiana but playing on Thursday and producing a triple double in a loss at Milwaukee.
Without James, the Lakers had 19 turnovers and a season-low 18 assists.
Davis was bothered by a right knee issue in the third quarter but kept playing and produced 32 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. He went to plant his right foot but it didn’t land solidly when he moved right to defend the basket and he fell to the floor.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Davis “tweaked it” but “felt good enough to go back in” and added: “I didn’t feel like he looked limited.”
Denver trailed 65-67 before going on a 37-15 run for a 20-point lead with 10 minutes remaining. Denver’s 73 secondhalf points were the most allowed by the Lakers in a half this season.
“We didn’t have enough juice defensively the whole game,” Vogel said. “That’s why you see that kind of number.”
In other NBA games on Sunday, it was: Raptors 110, Mavericks 107; Thunder 118, Clippers 112; Bucks 117, Pacers 89; and Celtics 119, Hornets 93.
(AFP)