NBA Closes Investigation Into Kings

The NBA has closed its brief investigation into the Kings without fining the team or penalizing it in any other way, the league announced today in a press release (Twitter link).

As we relayed on Wednesday, the NBA was taking a closer look at a play that occurred in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s loss to Golden State. Leading 101-100 with 3:15 left in the game, Kings head coach Doug Christie instructed his team to intentionally foul sharpshooter Seth Curry off the ball, despite the fact that the Warriors were already in the bonus. The play gave Curry, an 86.4% career free throw shooter, two attempts at the line.

Warriors forward Draymond Green suggested in his post-game remarks that it was the behavior of a blatantly tanking team, but the Kings said it was simply a tactical mistake by Christie, who didn’t realize Golden State was already in the penalty. According to the Kings, Christie wanted the chance to call a timeout that he would have automatically lost once the clock ticked below the three-minute mark.

The NBA said its investigation confirmed Sacramento’s accounting of events. Its statement reads, in part:

“The league’s investigation determined that Christie mistakenly believed that the Warriors were not in the penalty and therefore instructed his team to foul in an attempt to stop the clock and utilize one of the team’s remaining timeouts. The investigation found that Christie made no intentional effort to give the Warriors a shooting foul, or to cause the Kings to lose the game.”

Curry made just one of the two free throws awarded to him as a result of the intentional foul, and the Kings retook the lead on the next possession but ultimately lost the game by a score of 110-105.