Joe Ingles was forcibly held back by his Utah Jazz teammates after a midgame scuffle with Minnesota Timberwolves player Jake Layman.
A scuffle between Australian basketball star Joe Ingles and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jake Layman threatened to explode as the Jazz man was forcibly restrained by his teammates.
It’s unclear exactly what the root cause for the brief melee was, but whatever occurred, Ingles was visibly riled up at Layman.
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Once the brouhaha had reached its conclusion, neither Ingles or Layman would get off scot-free as the officials dished out presents in the form of fouls.
Layman received a common foul while Ingles copped a technical foul, the more severe punishment of the two.
In typical Australian fashion, Ingles wouldn’t let Layman have the last word after the melee, draining a three-pointer directly in his adversary’s face, giving him plenty of verbal reminders immediately after.
The fisticuffs between Ingles and Layman had the NBA community bemused as to why neither man appeared to be in the Christmas spirit as well as why those two of all players were the ones to engage in a physical stoush.
In the end, it was Ingles who had the last laugh with the result as the Jazz beat the Timberwolves 128-116 at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
Ingles himself had a solid game, scoring 16 points, nabbing four rebounds and contributing five assists throughout his 23-minute spell on the floor.
The brief stoush with Layman wasn’t Ingles’ only moment of visible aggression this season, either.
Ingles was one of four Jazz players ejected from its match against the Indiana Pacers in November after he shoved a referee while leaping to his teammate’s defence.
Jazz star Rudy Gobert was involved in a tussle with the Pacers’ Myles Turner and a number of Gobert’s peers ran over to insert themselves into the mess.
Along with Ingles, both Gobert, Turner and Utah superstar Donovan Mitchell were given their marching orders from the court for their respective actions.