Jamal Murray threw towel at ref before throwing heat pack

Murray, frustrated by Minnesota's physical defense, finished with eight points on 3-of-18 shooting in Game 2.

May 6, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) drives to the basket / Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Not only did Jamal Murray throw a heat pack onto the floor during the second quarter of Denver's blowout loss to Minnesota in Game 2, he also hurled a towel at a referee a few moments earlier.

The heat pack moment happened as Karl-Anthony Towns made a layup with 4:41 to go in the second quarter. TNT's replays revealed that Murray was sitting on the end of Denver's bench when he raised his right arm and fired the heat pack in the direction of officiating crew chief Marc Davis. The pack then slid onto the floor as players battled near the rim during live game action.

Sixteen seconds before the heat pack moment, Murray threw a towel from the same spot on the bench in the direction of Davis. The towel landed behind Davis before it was quickly retrieved by someone sitting on the floor. Davis never saw the towel, but Ryan Eichten, a contributor to Timberwolves blog site Canis Hoopus, caught Murray in the act and tweeted video evidence.

Not only did Jamal Murray throw a heat pack on the court, but he throw a towel as well a few plays early at 4:57 in the 2nd quarter pic.twitter.com/nCucPcGiul

— Ryan Eichten (@REichten) May 7, 2024

The Timberwolves were not happy with Murray's actions. Minnesota head coach Chris Finch said Murray throwing the heat pack onto the court was "inexcusable and dangerous."

There has been speculation that Murray could be suspended for Game 3 but based on Davis's comments to the pool reporter after the game, a suspension seems unlikely. Had Davis known it was Murray who threw the heat pack onto the court, he would've been assessed a technical foul because it wouldn't have been deemed a hostile act.

Here's the Q&A between the NBA's pool reporter and Davis:

QUESTION: The item that was thrown onto the court in the first half, were the officials aware that appeared to come from the Denver sideline?

DAVIS: I was the lead official and I didn’t notice it was on the floor or where it came from until [Karl-Anthony] Towns scored.

QUESTION: If you had been aware of that, what would the punishment have been in that situation?

DAVIS: We weren’t aware it had come from the bench.  If we would have been aware it came from the bench, we could have reviewed it under the hostile act trigger.  The penalty would have been a technical foul.

QUESTION: Definitely a technical foul and not an ejection?

DAVIS: Yes.  For an ejection, you would have to determine it was thrown directly at somebody versus thrown in frustration.