Suns’ Chriss, Dudley ejected after knocking over Jazz’s Rubio

The Utah Jazz turned a tightly-contested first half against the Phoenix Suns into a 23-point blowout in the early stages of the third quarter.

As Marquese Chriss went up for a dunk with the Suns trailing by 19 in the third, he lost control of the ball and fell to the ground, badly missing the dunk. Jazz center Rudy Gobert made a little contact to Chriss’ waist, but it was ruled out of bounds.

After Chriss fell, Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio skipped over Chriss and rushed the ball to the referee to inbound the ball.

As Rubio dribbled the ball up the court, Suns veteran Jared Dudley shoved him. Rubio then got into Dudley’s face, and Chriss came in soon after and delivered a hard shove to Rubio, knocking him to the ground.

Players rushed over from the other side of the court – Utah’s Jae Crowder and Joe Ingles pushed Chriss. Even some Suns coaches got into the middle of the ruckus.

Chriss and Dudley were given Flagrant 2 fouls and ejected from the game. The Suns’ frustrations showed for a team that would finish the day with loss No. 22 in its last 24 games.

Suns interim head coach Jay Triano said after the game he felt only Chriss deserved to be ejected.

“Ingles ran in to instigate as much as anybody else did, and (Donovan) Mitchell,” he said. “They were in there escalating rather than defusing more than anybody.”

Dudley tweeted about the fight after the game.

Thought Quese got fouled, Ref gave them the ball while he was on the ground with my other teammate trying to help him up.. I wanted to stop the fast break( I always do this) The push was a little much but he flopped and sold it.. Flagrant 1 or 2 and you move on.. https://t.co/Yf6CYlcaFj

— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) March 16, 2018

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