Milwaukee Bucks guard Cole Anthony was ejected with 10 minutes, 40 seconds left to go in the team’s 135-133 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 1 at Fiserv Forum he received his second technical foul for arguing with referees.
The Bucks were already playing without starting point guard Kevin Porter Jr., who suffered a knee injury during a workout. That left the Bucks with just Ryan Rollins and Anthony as primary ball handlers in the back court.
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“That definitely hurt the team,” Bucks’ forward Giannis Antetokounmpo acknowledged. “We, as a team, have to be smarter, not just Cole. We gotta pull him away from the ref before. When he has his first one, we gotta talk to him to kind of calm down and don’t get your second one because we need you in the game. (Porter) is not playing, like, we need you in the game. You gotta stay locked in.
“But it’s not just him, it’s the vets, we gotta talk to him, me, Myles (Turner), Bobby (Portis) we gotta pull him on the side and we gotta talk to him because he’s learning also. He’s learning. It’s his first time being in that role, being one of the guys that is the head of the snake in the second unit, a guy that’s going to have the ball, make plays for himself and make plays for the team, so he’s just gotta stay locked in on what we’re trying to do. I think we had a chance to come back to the game and that kind of hurts, momentum-wise it hurts.”
Antetokounmpo then acknowledged he’s been ejected “many” times and that Anthony, and the team as a whole, will take a lesson from the moment.
Anthony was hit with his second technical after jawing with officials following a personal foul called on him against Sacramento guard Russell Westbrook. Anthony’s first technical came at the 54-second mark of the third quarter when he complained about not getting a call on the offensive end.
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“I get my teammate’s frustration,” Turner said. “I’ll watch my comments here ’cause I don’t need no smoke from the league right now – I’m not gonna say anything, but I understand my teammate’s frustration – but I do think that Cole himself, being a vet, you have to be composed in situations especially being down a point guard like (Porter). So, all of us gotta just tame our emotions at times, no matter how bad some of the calls are.”
Bucks guard Cole Anthony drives against the Kings in their game Nov. 1 at Fiserv Forum.
Anthony played 13 minutes and was 1-for-4 from the field for three points. He also had five assists, two rebounds and three personal fouls. He also turned it over three times. He was not available for comment after the game.
Rollins ended up playing a team-high 36 minutes for Milwaukee.
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“I told Cole after the game, I said, ‘hey, listen, I’m an emotional guy, I was as a player. But I also realize when we were down guards and I just can’t get thrown out. I just can’t,'” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “Ryan was playing hard, heavy minutes and we had to go back with him and I just said, we can’t do that.”
(This story was updated to add new information.)(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks guard Cole Anthony ejected from game against Kings