The Chicago Bulls won a thriller against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night, but there was a late-game scuffle that wasn't pretty. The incident happened over by the Bulls bench, and Jazz forward John Collins and Chicago assistant coach Chris Fleming had some back and forth shoves. Seeing a physical altercation is never good, but when it's a player and a coach are going at it, it's especially bad.
Obviously the situation was bad as a whole as you never want to see something like that, but it almost cost the Bulls big time as the Jazz tied the game after a technical was foul was assessed to Torrey Craig, who is currently out with an injury. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan shared his thoughts on the matter after the game.
“It appeared to me I saw DeMar get fouled and I don't know if he (Sexton) was grabbing his face or holding his face,” Billy Donovan said, according to an article from nba.com. “I think Torrey (Craig) said something, came over. I think Chris Fleming was trying to hold everybody off to kind of separate. And then from there, it just kind of escalated and at that point I kind of stepped in to try to break it up a little bit. I don't look at it from an Utah situation at all. I look at it from our situation. We’ve got to be better in those moments, in my opinion. Not only did we lose a point on a technical foul, we also iced our free throw shooter. I give DeMar (DeRozan) a lot of credit for being mentally tough enough. I understand the emotion and the intensity of games. But at the same point, too, whether it's complaining or frustrated, it's not helping anything. We got to be able to do a better job of that all the way around. I’m not saying the players on the bench, everybody. We’ve got to be better in those moments.”
That was an ugly situation, and it could've been even worse for the Bulls if it had cost them the game. Luckily for Chicago, DeMar DeRozan hit two free throws right after to win the game, 119-117.
Follow Us
Subscribe