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The league hit Marcus Morris' wallet harder than Paul George's, but Morris did at least avoid any suspension for the altercation late in Saturday night's loss to the Indiana Pacers.
As our own Packey described the dust-up:
Going for the meaningless loose ball, Morris put a little bit of a gratuitous elbow into George and George took exception. After the final buzzer, George got up into Morris' face and started breathing that hot fire, so Morris pushed him away. This caused everyone to come running in to break it up and then you start to see other players start to express their own beef. Hold me back! Hold me back!
Fortunately, the NBA limiting Morris' punishment to just a fine means Morris will be in uniform Monday night against the Orlando Magic. Morris would have been sorely missed as he fills a major role for the Pistons, currently 6th in the league in minutes played.
While George seems to have gotten off easy after having provoked the confrontation, he's accumulated quite the tab in fines so far this year:
Paul George’s 2015-16 fine total: $13K - 6 techs $10K - criticism of officials $35K - criticism + profanity $10K - altercation = $68,000
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) January 4, 2016