Beware, NBA officials. Russell Westbrook has an extra technical foul to use before the regular season ends after all. According to ESPN's Royce Young, the league rescinded a technical called on the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar in his team's Feb. 5 victory over the Orlando Magic:
Westbrook is now tied for second in the league with 11 technical fouls, matching the total of Los Angeles Clippers guard and longtime personal foe Patrick Beverley. Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond paces the NBA with 13 technical fouls, easily eclipsing the career high of 10 levied against him in 2017-18 despite a third of the regular season remaining.
League rules stipulate that a player or coach is automatically suspended without pay for one game upon receiving his 16th technical foul. Every pair of subsequent technical fouls merits an additional one-game suspension. The rules are a bit more lenient in the playoffs, when a seventh technical foul prompts a one-game suspension.
The Thunder need Westbrook on the court for as many games as possible while they fight for home-court advantage in a stacked Western Conference. Though currently third in the conference standings, they're only two games up on the fifth-place Portland Trail Blazers and two and a half games ahead of the Houston Rockets. Oklahoma City has the league's toughest remaining schedule over its final 29 games, too, with opponents combining for a 56.3 winning percentage – over two points higher than those of the Denver Nuggets, who have the second-most difficult slate down the stretch.
Will Westbrook reach 16 technicals? He's on pace to do so, and the inherent intensity of teams jockeying for playoff position toward season's end will only lend itself to more opportunities for friction with opposing players and referees. Rescinding his latest technical, then, may not seem like a big deal now, but could loom large for Westbrook and the Thunder down the line.
Follow Us
Subscribe
