The NBA admitted Thursday that Blake Griffin should not have been ejected from Wednesday’s LA Clippers-Golden State game.
“After a league review of the Clippers-Warriors game, we have come to the conclusion that Blake Griffin should not have been ejected from the game,” NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said in a statement.
“A common foul should have been called on Griffin for initially attempting to dislodge the Warriors’ Andrew Bogut and a technical foul should have been assessed to Bogut for grabbing Griffin by the shirt and wrestling with him.”
Griffin’s ejection came with 10:43 remaining in an eventual 105-103 loss. He had 20 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.
Late in the third quarter, the Clippers began going almost exclusively to Griffin, who had consecutive buckets and a free throw after drawing a foul.
Griffin already had one technical foul for an incident at the end of the third quarter when he was elbowed by Warriors forward Draymond Green and responded. Green received a flagrant-2 foul and was ejected. On Thursday, he was fined $15,000 by the NBA for not leaving the court in a timely manner.
When the fourth quarter began, Bogut was guarding Griffin and made a steal and drew a charge.
The second technical came in response to Bogut’s actions, in which he grabbed Griffin’s jersey after the two had been jostling. Bogut received a flagrant-1 foul but remained in the game.
After the game, Griffin accused the Warriors of playing “cowardly basketball. … Tonight I got two technicals for nothing.”
“It’s good, old-fashioned basketball between two teams that are playing for something,” Warriors coach Mark Jackson said.
The teams had some heated moments in last season’s meetings, and that has continued this season. When they met on Halloween, Bogut and Clippers center DeAndre Jordan had a shoving match and Griffin and Jackson had stern words when they bumped into each other on the sidelines.
Prior to Wednesday’s game, the teams did not hold a joint pregame chapel service, which almost never happens in the NBA.