UPDATED 9 p.m. ET: The NBA announced that Westbrook would be fined $10,000 in lieu of a suspension. He was also given a technical foul. According to ESPN's Royce Young, that's all that's going to happen:
See below for original story.
As if the Oklahoma City Thunder aren't in enough trouble following a 113-96 Monday night defeat that has them facing a first-round out, they now could be without Russell Westbrook for Wednesday night's Game 5.
According to KSL'sAndy Larsen, referees were not allowed to talk about a contentious sequence of events that occurred in the fourth quarter of Monday's Game 4, because the NBA's disciplinary committee was reviewing it. Those events began when Utah's Rudy Gobert was fouled in the groin by OKC's Raymond Felton in a game that was already plenty heated. After that foul, Westbrook, who was waiting to check in at the scorer's table, walked onto the court to confront Gobert.
Here's video of the nut-shot, and the post nut-shot altercation:
As Larsen writes, the league's question appears to be, "was Westbrook waved on the court by the officials or was he leaving the bench area to participate in an altercation?" If it was the latter, Westbrook could be saddled with a suspension for Wednesday's do-or-die contest.
NBC's Dan Feldman pointed out that Thunder teammate Steven Adams was also awaiting entry into the game at the scorer's table, which could hurt Westbrook's case. In either event the NBA would have to make their judgment quickly, as Game 5 will take place Wednesday night in Oklahoma City at 9:30 ET.
