NBA suspends Kings’ Trey Lyles, fines Bucks’ Brook Lopez

Kings forward Trey Lyles has been suspended for one game without pay, and Bucks center Brook Lopez has been fined $25K for their roles in an on-court altercation between the two teams in Sacramento on Monday, the NBA announced Wednesday in a press release (Twitter link).

During the final seconds of the Bucks’ win over the Kings, Lyles took exception to Giannis Antetokounmpo dribbling the ball toward him while running out the clock. He tried to steal the ball away, then shoved Antetokounmpo. Lopez jumped to his teammate’s defense, resulting in a brief on-court skirmish between the two teams (Twitter video link via Bleacher Report).

Both Lyles and Lopez were ejected from the game, and the NBA said in Wednesday’s announcement that the two big men were disciplined further for escalating the situation — Lopez did so by confronting Lyles, and then the Kings forward escalated matters further by “striking Lopez in the face” and “grabbing and holding Lopez around the neck area.”

As a result of his one-game ban, Lyles will miss Wednesday’s game in Chicago and will forfeit about $18K, which is 1/145th of his $2.63M salary for the season.

Lopez’s $25K fine will come out of his $13.9M salary for 2022-23.