Poor Ricky Rubio was at the wrong end of two cheap shots within seconds of each other on Thursday. On this third quarter play, Marquese Chriss missed a dunk — presumably, he thought he was fouled, but it looked like his just flubbed it — and got mad about it. He decided Rubio would be the one who he’d take out his anger on.
Ricky Rubio received cheapshots twice within seconds from the Suns
Both Phoenix players were ejected.
Still, it was his teammate Jared Dudley who started it, coming out of nowhere to run into Rubio, only for Chriss to plough into Rubio as well to knock him over again. Here’s the play in question.
Somehow, Utah received only one technical free throw out of this mess. Here was the punishments handed out.
- Marquese Chriss was given a technical foul and ejected
- Jared Dudley was given a flagrant-two and ejected
- Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles both received technical fouls
And here’s how it looked in the box score.
If you want a longer look at the action, here’s 90 seconds of the scuffle unfolding. (We’re not going to call it a fight; it was absolutely not a fight.)
Was Chriss fouled? It seems like he wasn’t touched, but his body actions also look like someone who got hit, so I’m not sure. We should note that Chriss has set a league record in missed dunks this season, so this is something that he does. He airballed this dunk by like three feet! We can guess this might be a similar situation.
I’m also just confused how anyone could get mad at Ricky Rubio, that sweet angel. Hopefully this never happens again, because Rubio is only lovable.
