The brawling duo of Serge Ibaka and Robin Lopez have received a suspension of one game without pay by the league office after throwing punches during the third quarter of Tuesday's of the Toronto Raptors‘ 122-120 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls, the NBA announced this afternoon.
Raptors assistant and former NBA All-Star Jamaal Magloire was also fined by the league for pushing Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic, who attempted to talk to Ibaka and calm him down as players were being separated.
Magloire's deed comes at the heels of Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton‘s post-game rant due to his rookie Brandon Ingram being pushed by a Milwaukee Bucks assistant during last week's brawl.
The skirmish caught most by surprise as Ibaka and Lopez were inches away from actually landing their punches, which would merited a lengthier suspension.
The game carried on a spirited pace, finishing with the Raptors outscoring the Bulls 34-19 in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan (42 points) out-dueled swingman Jimmy Butler (37 points), ultimately pulling off an inspired two-point victory over their Eastern Conference counterpart.
Lopez expected the suspension while Ibaka was adamant on justifying the fact that he was just trying to defend himself. Either way, their teams will be without them for the next game at a key time, as they both have only 11 games left in the regular season.
The two were also fined as well.
Chicago's Robin Lopez loses $120,715 in his one-game suspension without pay … Toronto's Serge Ibaka loses $111,364
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) March 22, 2017
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