Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse and guard Kelly Oubre Jr. were each fined $50,000 by the NBA on Friday for their reactions to a missed call that cost Philadelphia in a one-point loss to the LA Clippers on Wednesday.
After no foul call was made on Oubre’s drive for an attempted game winner at the end of the 108-107 76ers loss, Nurse stormed onto the court and had to be restrained by his assistants. Oubre also jumped into the mix, pointing at each of the three officials before being pulled away.
Crew chief Kevin Scott said in a pool report after the game that there should have been a foul called against Clippers forward Paul George that would have given Oubre two free throws and a chance to win the game.
Joe Dumars, NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations, said in a release that Nurse was fined for “aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing game officials” and Oubre was fined for “verbally abusing and directing an obscene gesture toward game officials.”
Oubre publicly apologized for “losing my cool” after the game but also elaborated on why he went after the officials.
“I saw Coach Nurse getting riled up, and if our coach is going to fight for us and he’s going there, then I’m right behind him,” Oubre said. “But at the end of the day, it wasn’t cool. So I’ll take whatever penalties come with that and you have to move on, but I got to be better in a sense.”
The loss dropped the 76ers (39-34) to eighth place in the Eastern Conference, a half-game behind the Miami Heat for seventh and 1½ games back of the Indiana Pacers to avoid the play-in tournament.
The 76ers play at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.
Information from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps was used in this report.