Against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2, Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets did not have a particularly enjoyable first half. In the first half, the Rudy Gobert-less Wolves utterly dominated Denver, sending them into the locker room with an unexpected 61-35 advantage. Denver was already down 0–1 in their Western Conference Semifinal series.

The Wolves’ defense was ferocious, while the referees were letting a lot of contact go. That’s not a recipe that works in Denver’s favor, because when Minnesota can envelop opposing teams, you get to see why they had the No. 1 defense in the NBA.

And no one was more frustrated with this than Jamal Murray, who usually wears his emotions on his sleeve but was especially frustrated with how things were going. In fact, while sitting on the bench during the second quarter, the cameras caught something getting thrown onto the floor from the Nuggets’ bench area.

After further examination, it appeared that Murray — presumably because he was unhappy that Karl-Anthony Towns did not get called for a travel — took a heat pack and threw it onto the floor.

It stands to reason that Murray wasn’t actively trying to throw it, but rather, it was in his hand and it just slipped out while he was expressing his discontent towards the referees.

Still, it’s not a stretch to say that he’s fortunate that the refs took this as an accident and not something malicious, because it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where he would’ve gotten kicked out for this.