Quick hits
Walton fined $15,000 for criticizing NBA officials
The NBA fined Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton $15,000 on Wednesday for criticizing officials after Monday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs. Walton expected the fine. After the Lakers’ 143-142 overtime loss, he opened his news conference by airing his frustrations.
“I was going to save my money, but I just can’t anymore . ... It’s 70-something points in the paint to 50-something, again they outshoot us from the freethrow line — 38 free throws,” Walton said.
“Watch the play, watch the play where I got a technical foul on. Watch what happened to LeBron James’ arm. It’s the same thing that James Harden and Chris Paul shot 30 free throws on us the night before. Then LeBron pulls up on a screen, somebody trying to fight over. Same, same thing they shot free throws on. Same thing! We are scoring 70 points a night. In the paint . ... Watch how Josh Hart plays this game. He played 40 minutes tonight. All he does is attack the rim. Zero free throws tonight. Zero.”
The Lakers’ frustrations with the officiating are part of what led to the fight during their home opener on Saturday. After the Houston Rockets’ James Ennis clotheslined Hart, he was assessed a flagrant foul 1. Many of the Lakers felt Ennis should have been ejected. Then when Brandon Ingram got called for his fourth personal foul, Ingram grew angry with referee Jason Phillips and drew a technical foul for shoving Harden in the back and then confronting Phillips.
Giants trade Eli Apple to Saints
Tuesday’s trade of Eli Apple to the New Orleans Saints prompted a consistent and unsettling feeling of ‘Who’s next?’ among some Giants players unofficially polled by the Daily News, and understandably so.
Head coach Pat Shurmur insisted “we're not throwing in the towel” on his afternoon conference call.
“We’re trying to win every game we play,” Shurmur said of his Giants (1-6), who are in a three-way tie with the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals for the worst record in the NFL. “But we’re also looking at the roster on a short-term and long-term basis.”
But GM Dave Gettleman’s sale of Apple, the Giants’ 10th overall pick of the 2016 draft, for a 2019 fourth-round and 2020 seventh-round pick clearly prioritized the future over the present.
Big Ten fines Michigan State for pregame incident against Michigan
The Big Ten issued a $10,000 fine to Michigan State and publicly reprimanded the university, football coach Mark Dantonio, the University of Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh for their actions during and after Saturday morning's pregame confrontation at Spartan Stadium.
“We are fortunate the series of events that occurred prior to the Michigan-Michigan State game did not escalate into a much more serious matter,” league commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. “While traditions hold great importance on our campuses, traditions do not supersede the values of good sportsmanship or the requirement for player safety. We expect more from our coaches, students and administrators and will continue to work with our institutions to prioritize good sportsmanship moving forward.”
League officials determined MSU violated the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy by walking across the field with linked arms “and initiated contact with multiple members of Michigan’s team who were legitimately on the field during pregame warmups,” according to a conference release. The monetary fine was due to this. Dantonio was reprimanded “for failing to take action to mitigate a foreseeable conflict from occurring.”