Houston Rockets guard Marcus Smart was ejected in the third quarter of Houston’s 115-108 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, Nov. 11, after throwing a punch that grazed Warriors center Charles Bassey’s nose. Officials reviewed the sequence and assessed Smart a flagrant foul 2, which carries an automatic ejection.
The incident came with 21 seconds left in the third quarter, when Smart threw a right hook that grazed Bassey’s nose as the Warriors center stepped back to slip it. Rockets coach Ime Udoka said afterward that Smart told him Bassey had wrapped up his elbow on a rebound at the other end, and that when Smart said something about it, Bassey answered, “What you gonna do?”
Bassey was not disciplined for his role and made one of two free throws awarded on the flagrant. He said Smart had been playing dirty “the whole game” and called the punch “fake toughness.” Smart left for the locker room before the review concluded and finished with six points on 2-of-2 shooting, two rebounds, one assist and one turnover in 17 minutes.
Golden State had already lost Stephen Curry earlier in the game, ruled out in the first quarter with right abdominal soreness, well before the scuffle happened.
Bassey’s Restraint Cost Houston a Point, Not the Warriors
Bassey’s decision not to retaliate meant Golden State absorbed the altercation without consequence beyond the single free throw he converted — a marginal point in a game Houston won by seven.
The lasting problem from Wednesday belongs to Houston. Smart signed with the Rockets this offseason using the taxpayer mid-level exception, the move that hard-capped Houston at the second apron for 2026-27, per Hoops Rumors. An early-season ejection for throwing a punch is the kind of volatility that threatens his own availability rather than Golden State’s rotation.
The League Review Lands Before Houston Plays Again
Houston hosts the Utah Jazz on Friday, Nov. 13, in Emirates NBA Cup group play, which gives the NBA two days to rule on the punch. No discipline had been announced as of Wednesday night, and no further action affecting Golden State is pending from the incident.
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