ESPN analysts are calling for the NBA to suspend Jamal Murray for a dangerous substitution in Game 2

Jamal Murray wasn’t happy about the Denver Nuggets’ significant loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night. During a contentious second quarter, Murray threw a heat pack to the ground in the middle of the action. In the Tuesday morning edition of Stand upJay Williams and Tim Legler both agreed that Murray should deserve a suspension.

Williams called the move immature and Legler pointed out how bad the injury could have been if Karl-Anthony Towns had stepped on it. Not to mention the fact that one of Murray’s own teammates could have slipped on the heat pack and injured themselves too, making things even more reckless.

To make matters worse, Murray was also caught throwing a towel that moments before landed harmlessly at a referee’s feet. When you add the two throws together, you wonder if he wasn’t just throwing things on the field, but was actually throwing things at the referee. Whatever his intentions were, he threw a fit.

Murray was kind of lucky because none of the referees saw what was happening, which Timberwolves coach Chris Finch mentioned when he called out Murray for the dangerous act during that postgame press conference.

“It’s inexcusable and dangerous,” Finch said. “And I’m sure it was just a mistake and an oversight. I’m sure there was no intention at all on the part of the referee. But we definitely can’t allow that to happen.”

The thing is, if a fan threw something on the ground, they would be ejected. It wouldn’t matter if the referees saw it. But when you consider what Mike Malone got away with it Early in the game when he screamed in Dedric Taylor’s face, you have to wonder if they would have actually done something to Murray if they had watched him throw the heat pack.

Dewayne Dedmond was ejected from a game last season for throwing a massage gun onto the field during a game. Dedmond threw a tantrum on the bench after an argument with Erik Spoelstra. Because he was ejected from the game, he had already been penalized by the league when the Heat suspended him for one game without pay. In Murray’s case, he should have been thrown out, but he wasn’t given even a single technical.

A suspension seems to be a given for the NBA here. Murray not even getting a technical foul for throwing multiple things – with one of those objects falling to the ground in the middle of the action – seems to set a bad precedent. The way these two teams are currently playing doesn’t seem to have any impact on the outcome of the series. Those in charge didn’t do anything about it during the game, so it’s now the league’s duty.