The Thunder had a tough weekend. On Friday night, they blew an 18-point halftime lead during a home game against the Celtics to lose a contest they obviously should have won against a red-hot Boston team. On Sunday night, Oklahoma City traveled to Portland and lost to the Trail Blazers. And during that game, the team’s newly-acquired star Carmelo Anthony got ejected after what looked like a pretty routine play in the third quarter.
In the clip above, you can see Carmelo drive to the basket as Noah Vonleh attempts to guard him. You can then see Carmelo score and get fouled by Jusuf Nurkic on the play. And while it did appear as though Carmelo may have inadvertently hit Nurkic in the face on the play, which caused Nurkic to spend several moments on the ground writhing around in pain, it didn’t appear to be a play that was anything out of the ordinary. But the game’s referees took a look at it after it happened and determined that Carmelo hit Nurkic in the face on purpose. They handed him a Flagrant 2 foul—and ejected him from the game.
After the game, Carmelo didn’t know what to say about the confusing play (and likely didn’t want to say the wrong thing and get fined by the NBA). He simply said that he hopes the league takes a look at it and determines that he didn’t do anything wrong.
"I don’t have no thoughts," he said. "I don’t have anything to say about that play. I think the league will do what’s right."
But Carmelo’s teammates and head coach weren’t as forgiving. Russell Westbrook called the Flagrant 2 foul call on Carmelo "nonsense." He also said that many of the calls made against the Thunder on Sunday night were "a bunch of bullshit."
Paul George suggested Portland’s crowd may have played into the referees’ decision to kick Carmelo out of the game. He said it was "crazy" for Carmelo to be the one tossed out of the game for driving to the basket and being aggressive.
Andre Roberson agreed with Westbrook and George’s assessments. He said it was "unbelievable" to see Carmelo get tossed from the game.
And Thunder head coach Billy Donovan said he couldn’t recall ever seeing another situation in which a guy who got fouled on an and-1 play ended up getting thrown out of a game.
"I’ve never seen in the history of the game a guy get an and-1 play and then get ejected from the game," Donovan said. "That’s probably something you’ve got to talk to the league about."
The Carmelo call was made more confusing by the fact that Westbrook was hit in the face by Vonleh a few minutes before Carmelo got ejected. But when Donovan asked the refs to review that play, he was ultimately denied and no foul was called on it.
"I thought that play should’ve been reviewed," Donovan said. "It may have proven nothing, but I think when someone gets hit in the face and goes down to the floor and you’ve got to call timeout, you should at least review it, just to make sure. I don’t know why they reviewed the other one. I probably didn’t ask Russell to stay down on the court long enough to get it reviewed."
You can watch that play here:
Crew chief Rodney Mott released a statement after the game and said the contact Carmelo created between himself and Nurkic was "excessive," which is why he was given a Flagrant 2.
Check out the clip at the top to see the play for yourself. Did Carmelo really deserve to get booted from the game for that?
