It was a short Friday night for Joe Ingles in Sacramento.
The Aussie forward only logged 5:44 minutes before being ejected from the game for a flagrant-2 foul on Davion Mitchell. After Mike Conley turned the ball over, De'Aaron Fox pushed it ahead to rookie Mitchell, who looked to throw it down but was bumped up Ingles.
Joe Ingles has been ejected for a dangerous play on Davion pic.twitter.com/IF3ruon6H1
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) October 23, 2021
That contact, with 1:36 left in the first quarter, led to Ingles being forced to leave the game. Playing his eighth season in the league, this is Ingles' first career ejection.
Postgame, the game officials said that they found Ingles contact with a flying Mitchell 'unnecessary and excessive contact'
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“When we looked at it, we had reckless contact to an airborne shooter," Crew chief Kevin Cutler said. "The contact was deemed unnecessary and excessive, which is the criteria for a Flagrant Foul Penalty 2.”
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Mitchell, on the other hand, didn't believe Ingles meant to undercut him and didn't think that the foul should have resulted in an ejection.
There clearly seemed to be no malicious intent on the play, as Ingles apologized to Mitchell while the referees were reviewing the play.
During his brief stint on the court, the 6-8 forward didn't trouble the scorers only recording the one missed shot attempt. While the Kings put up a solid fight in their home opener, the Jazz eventually come out on top and improved to 2-0 by winning this contest 110-101.
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