
A scuffle broke out in the 3rd quarter of Game 1 of the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers first-round playoff series, leading to Kristaps Porzingis being ejected after he received a technical foul, his second of the night.
It all went down after Porzingis tried to get in between Marcus Morris Sr. and Luka Doncic after the two players started to get into it.
A scrum broke out after this play between Luka and Marcus Morris. pic.twitter.com/41gZIGsGCp
Kristaps Porzingis was ejected after he received his second tech. pic.twitter.com/aQoJcrI8KE
NBA ref expert Steve Javie brought in on the ESPN broadcast and says Porzingis was an "escalator" rather than a peacemaker in the situation. Says the refs made the right call and were justified in calling the 2nd tech on KP, resulting in automatic ejection.
NBA fans and players, including LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Dirk Nowitzki, took to social media to comment on the ejection with many slamming the decision.
Man that was BOGUS AS HELL MAN!!!!! Cmon man. 🤦🏾♂️
That ejection is super soft...
What a break for the Clippers. No way Porzingis should be ejected. One tech for complaining over what he thought was a good block (it was a foul). Now this for rushing to the defense of Doncic and giving MMorris a tiny shove. So wrong.
Nothing better to close a great day of playoffs than ruining an otherwise awesome game by ejecting Kristaps Porzingis for two terrible techs
Really really really really dumb and stupid and lazy and unfair to eject Porzingis for THAT...just hideously wrong and lazy on every level.
Porzingis ejected for nothing pic.twitter.com/WZ0bU7qWgb
Porzingis left the game, his playoff debut, with 14 points and six rebounds. The Clippers ended up winning the game with a final score of 118-110.