Russell pleads innocence after beaning official
Russell Westbrook said he has “no idea” why he was assessed a technical foul for hitting a game official in the head with a ball during the first quarter of Oklahoma City’s 123-112 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night.
After a timeout, Westbrook was near the Thunder bench and threw and overhead pass that hit official Tre Maddox in the head while he wasn’t looking. Another official, Brent Barnaky, saw what happened and charged Westbrook with the technical foul.
“Instead of Russell (Westbrook) giving the ball to the nearest official, he throws it in the area where Tre (Maddox) is and Tre is not looking,” official Sean Corbin said after the game. “The ball hits him in the face, so that is a technical foul.”
Westbrook said he was just returning the ball to Maddox after the timeout before heading to the bench.
He said he even called Maddox’s name before throwing the ball and his actions were clearly unintentional.
“Maddox turned right at me and then he looked away,” Westbrook said. “I don’t know what to tell you, I really don’t. I’m not that type of guy. I would never, ever disrespect the game in that way, throw the ball at a referee. I’ve never done it before.
“That’s just not even heard of in our game today. If you do that you get kicked out of the game. That’s not allowed and I would never do such a thing.”
Westbrook immediately acted in disbelief at the call, walking away from the Thunder huddle over to the scorer’s table at one point. He tried to plead his case to the officials afterwards, but to no avail.
“To get a tech is crazy to me, but I’ll take the good with the bad,” said Westbrook, who had 33 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.
Best of Batum
Meanwhile, Hornets shooting guard Nicolas Batum said there is an art to drawing a foul on a 3-point shot.
“It’s not easy,” Batum said after twice drawing whistles on 3-pointers en route to a season-high 28 points against the Thunder.
Batum was a regular at the foul line, converting 13 of 15 free throws. As a team, the Hornets made 40 of 49 foul shots to snap a two-game losing streak.
Batum said he watched others like Kevin Durant and Reggie Miller work to perfect that art of drawing the foul, which includes reading the defender’s movements.
“Sometimes it works and sometimes you throw up a really bad shot,” Batum said.
Enes Kanter added 22 points, and Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams each had 18 for OKC, which led by one after Kanter hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to beat the buzzer at the end of the third quarter. But the Thunder couldn’t sustain the momentum after erasing a doubledigit deficit.
The Hornets took control with about six minutes left, outscoring the Thunder 22-11 the rest of the way.
Kemba Walker, who scored 34 and 37 points in his last two games while making an AllStar push, had nine points in the decisive final quarter. Frank Kaminsky carried the Hornets early, scoring all of 17 points in the first half as Charlotte took a 60-55 halftime lead.
Better finish
Before the fourth quarter, the Hornets gathered in a huddle to make sure they were all on the same page heading down the stretch.
“The fourth quarter has been an issue for us defensively and we really wanted to play as well as we can,” Walker said. “We did a good job. We wanted to clamp down as best as we can. And we have to continue to be that way.”
Hornets coach Steve Clifford said he felt Michael KiddGilchrist did a solid job defending Westbrook. Even thoughhehad33points,Westbrook was just 10 of 31 from the field.
“There weren’t a lot of easy (shots),” Clifford said. “I thought Mike played with great discipline and I thought our guys off the ball were great.”