MILWAUKEE — Incomes an equal share of the highlight on an evening when Damian Lillard hits an additional time buzzer beater from 30 toes in opposition to your staff is a troublesome feat, however Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown pulled it off with a fiery ejection and a never-before-seen post-game press convention efficiency.

Minutes after his staff had its collective coronary heart damaged by Lillard’s heroics, Brown walked into the customer’s media room able to placed on a present, props and all. 

“I simply wanna present you guys why I bought kicked out of the sport,” Brown stated as he opened his laptop computer. 

What adopted was half rant, half movie session and half efficiency artwork. For effectively over 5 minutes, Brown opined concerning the lack of consistency in officiating, broke down clips and pantomimed gamers’ actions. 

If a fantastic comes his manner, it should have been well-earned. 

With slightly below 10 minutes to play in regulation of his staff’s 143-142 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Brown was ejected for an on-court tirade that noticed him unintentionally collide with Bucks ahead Pat Connaughton and get face-to-face with an official earlier than he was pulled away by Malik Monk. 

The inciting incident was a play the place Brown thought his level guard, De’Aaron Fox, had been fouled. His frustration had been constructing all night time lengthy, nonetheless. 

“That is in third quarter with 1:28 left,” Brown defined. “Return and watch. Fox barely places his hand on Dame’s hip. Incidental contact. He did not push him or something. He barely places his hand there, and so they give him three free throws.”

“On the half, I feel we have been down 19-5 in free throws, 19-5,” Brown remarked. “I do know that occurs generally, nevertheless it’s very irritating — when on the finish of the half, from what I get instructed on a regular basis, Malik drives and Lopez comes over and goes vertical with the forearm down right here.” 

Whereas this was initially known as a foul on Lopez, the Bucks efficiently challenged the play and the decision was overturned. 

“From what the NBA tells me the rule is, while you go vertical, you have to have two fingers up,” Brown stated. “As a result of [Domantas Sabonis] has his hand down [in the mid-section] rather a lot and so they name him for it each time and so they all the time inform us, ‘Nicely you bought a forearm [in the mid-section].’ And tonight, they stated the forearm might be [in the mid-section] so long as it isn’t prolonged, so I do not know what the foundations are on this scenario. I want clarification, as a result of, once more, two fingers up is what the rule is on verticality, however they have been right here [hand up) and they said Lopez could do this. That’s a five-point swing. They take away the two free throws and then Milwaukee goes down and hits a three. 

“And to end the half at 19-5, that’s tough to deal with, especially when you’re getting told different interpretations on rules. So now, I go back and they call this foul, they call this foul again on Fox. And then, he didn’t push him. They said it’s supposed to be incidental contact, and they give him three free throws.” 

At this point, Brown again showed the foul on Fox from the third quarter. 

“Now, watch this right here,” Brown said. “Fox comes off a pick-and-roll. The kid, [Cameron Payne], hooks him, hooks Fox’s arm. Take a look at Fox’s arm when he spins off of this. Hooks his arm. He nearly falls. No incidental contact. He hooks his arm and nearly falls, and there isn’t any foul. To me, as a coach… look once more, he nearly falls. And that is within the fourth quarter on the 9:32 mark.”

That is the play that bought Brown ejected:

“The referees are human, and they’ll make errors, however you simply hope that A) there’s some kind of consistency and B) there’s some kind of communication between the refs,” Brown added. “And the refs tonight, they have been nice, they communicated with me all night time. However by way of consistency, you guys noticed it proper right here. Dame coming off the pick-and-roll and Cunning getting hooked and nearly falling coming off the pick-and-roll. 

“And, on high of that, for those who get communication and also you get some type of consistency within the recreation, OK, then you possibly can reside with some issues. However the consistency that I [saw] tonight — wasn’t for my part — there. After which, I do not perceive the rule, if the rule is you have to go vertical each fingers up, how are you going to take away two free throws with a man together with his forearm down right here? If they’ll change the rule on me and say, ‘OK the forearm will be down right here, and one other one will be up there,’ then all proper I do know that going ahead. However that is not what the rule is, as a result of we get known as on [Sabonis] on a regular basis and so they inform us he is bought to have each fingers up if you wish to go vertical. That is why I bought kicked out.”

The Kings have been down by 10 on the time of Brown’s ejection, and appeared to be spurred to life. They got here all the best way again to power additional time on a clutch layup by Fox within the closing seconds of regulation, and may have went on to win in additional time had they not missed three key free throws on the finish of the additional body. 

As a substitute, they watched as Lillard and his patented ‘Dame Time’ celebration ended the sport on the buzzer. The loss places the Kings, who’re 6-4 over their final 10 video games, at 23-16. Sacramento at present holds the ultimate assured playoff spot within the Western Convention, and is only one forward within the loss column from the Dallas Mavericks (23-17), house owners of the primary Play-In Match place.