When Hart drove to the hoop late in the first quarter, Jordan found him and took the ball away from him. Hart pushed his leg out and kicked Green in the back of the head just before landing, knocking the Bulls guard to the ground.
The umpires quickly upgraded Hart’s infraction to a flagrant 2, which led to his automatic dismissal, after reviewing the play on the monitor.
In the pool report, crew chief Scott Foster stated, “Intent is not a criteria for what we do when we are ruling on a flagrant foul penalty 2 or 1.” “However, wind up, impact and follow through, potential for injury, whether the act was a non-basketball play, and location of the contact, as well as whether we thought it was a reckless act, are all the criteria that we felt were met for this decision.”
It should come as no surprise that Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau disagreed with the officials’ interpretation of the events, referring to it as a “tough call.”
Green finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds, setting career highs in both categories, seemingly motivated by the incident. The victory kept the Bulls ahead of the Hawks in the battle for the ninth seed, which would grant them home court advantage in the play-in game between the No. 9 and No. 10 teams.
The one positive development for the Knicks during their loss was the return of OG Anunoby, who had missed nine more games due to an elbow ailment. He scored 12 points in 29 minutes of action.
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