PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, March 5, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has been fined $25,000 for public criticism of the officiating and his conduct while exiting the playing court and Jazz center, and Rudy Gobert has been fined $20,000 for public criticism of the officiating, it was announced Friday.
Mitchell and Gobert made their comments to the media following Utah’s 131-123 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on March 3 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, said a news release from the NBA.
“Mitchell, who received two technical fouls and was ejected with 30.8 seconds remaining, recklessly knocked over a water cooler while leaving the court,” the news release said.
“I’m never ever one to blame a ref, blame an official, but this is getting out of hand,” Mitchell said. “There have been games like this we’ve won. Games we’ve lost. We’re nice, we don’t complain, we don’t get frustrated, we fight through things. But the fact that we continuously get screwed in a way by this … It’s getting (expletive) ridiculous.”
The Jazz led by three with 21.5 seconds to play in regulation. But Sixers All-Star Joel Embiid stepped back and hit a three-pointer over Bogdanovic to tie the game with 5.3 seconds to play.
The Jazz chose not to call a timeout, as Mike Conley took the inbounds pass to the free throw line, but missed the go-ahead floater as time expired.
In overtime, Philly’s Tobias Harris scored 11 points to help the Sixers split the two-game season series with the Jazz. Utah dropped to 27-9 on the year, losing back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 6.
“The challenge is when you don’t get the whistles you want — and those things always happen — is to play through it and continue to compete,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said. “I thought we did that. Obviously, I heard Donovan’s comments. Obviously, there’s a level of frustration that he has, that we have, and that’s something that presumably you can’t control.
“But give Philly credit. Embiid hit a big shot. We were on him trying not to give up a three. And then we weren’t able to close the other way and overtime got away from us. We just have to take a break, regroup and continue to compete.”
Embiid scored a game-high 40 points, shooting 13 free throws along the way. Mitchell scored 33 points and went 4-for-6 from the free throw line. On the night, Philly attempted 35 free throws to Utah’s 19.
Mitchell picked up two technical fouls in overtime as he voiced his frustrations to the officials.
Mitchell was somewhat vague as he voiced his frustrations.
“This is something that eats at me, man,” he said. “Y’all know what it is. We know what it is.”
