Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin was ejected from his team’s 127-117 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night after complaining about a foul call by clapping in a referee’s face and bumping into her.
Late in the fourth quarter, Mathurin made a layup and the Cavaliers quickly took off the other way. Mathurin sprinted back in transition and was called for a foul on Evan Mobley. It appeared to be an obvious foul, but Mathurin thought otherwise. He immediately put his arms out in the air and started to complain to referee Natalie Sago.
As Sago walked toward the scorer’s table to confirm the call, Mathurin followed her and continued yelling. He then clapped in Sago’s face and eventually bumped into her. He was immediately given two technical fouls and ejected from the game.
It’s unclear why Mathurin was so upset about this particular call, but he may still have been mad about being called for a technical for hanging on the rim earlier in the game. While that may have been a soft tech, it doesn’t excuse Mathurin’s behavior on the latter incident.
After the game, Mathurin told reporters that he apologized to Sago and attributed his actions to the heat of the moment.
For the first technical foul, crew chief Zach Zarba told a pool reporter that Mathurin “doing a pull-up or a chin-up on the rim where his whole head was above the rim” was the reason he was assessed a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul.
In the fourth-quarter incident, Mathurin was hit with two consecutive technicals for “unsportsmanlike behavior toward a game official,” Zarba said.
The NBA does not take physical contact with officials lightly, so Mathurin has at least a fine coming, if not a suspension. Over the past few years we have seen multiple players suspended for bumping into a ref, including Dejounte Murray and Grant Williams.
It remains to be seen how the league will handle the Mathurin situation, though the fact that he followed the ref around the court is unlikely to help his case.
The Pacers’ next game is on Thursday night against the red-hot Detroit Pistons.
In 40 appearances this season, Mathurin is averaging 16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and two assists per game while shooting 35.9% from 3-point range and playing a career-high 32.8 minutes.
