NBA rescinds Kevin Durant's 16th technical foul, spares him from fine
The NBA rescinded a technical foul that was given to Kevin Durant early on Wednesday night in the Golden State Warriors’ 132-117 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Durant was assessed the technical with 9:39 left in the first quarter after he accidentally bumped into official Karl Lane near the scorer’s table. Durant protested the call initially, and spoke to a second official after the fact to make sure they knew it wasn’t on purpose.
“I did bump into him, but it wasn’t intentional,” Durant said after the game, via the Mercury News. “I was going to wipe my feet off. He said I was following him to the scorer’s table. But you guys see I wipe my foot off after every stoppage of play, so it was a miscommunication.”
Kevin Durant explains what happened on his 16th technical pic.twitter.com/ElkNu4W3zV
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) April 11, 2019
The officials told Durant that they would send the footage to the league office after the game, where it could be reviewed. The league then officially rescinded the technical foul on Thursday afternoon, bringing his season total down to 15 and saving him from paying about a $5,000 fine.
Players are subjected to a one-game suspension after reaching 16 total technical fouls in a season, per NBA rules. However since the foul occurred in the regular-season finale, and technical foul counts are reset for the postseason, Durant was spared from that suspension anyway.
The Warriors led just once in the matchup on Wednesday night, briefly holding a two-point lead early in the first quarter, and fell into a 30-point hole early in the second half. After already locking down the top seed in the Western Conference, however, Wednesday’s game didn’t mean much.
Durant finished with 21 points in 18 minutes to lead the Warriors. Klay Thompson added 19 points while playing just 16 minutes, and Jordan Bell finished with 15 points. The Grizzlies finished the season with a 33-49 record, the fourth-worst in the Western Conference.
Golden State will kick off its opening round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday at Oracle Arena in Oakland.
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