Dallas Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis was eliminated in her 118-110 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 of her opening game of the playoffs on Monday night, and basketball fans were not happy about it.
Not one bit.
Porzingis emerged after second technical
Both technical breaches by Porzingis on Monday were in no way scandalous.
His first came midway through the second quarter, after he came up with what looked like a fairly clean block on Paul George and began to celebrate.
His second foul came after a scrum in the third quarter, which began after Luka Doncic and Marcus Morris got into the post.
Porzingis ran in and shoved Morris’ light, which pushed him back in the brief incident. Both he and Morris received technical violations. Since that second of the night marked Porzingis, he has been exhibited.
Porzingis finished the night with 14 points and six rebounds.
‘It’s a pity. We just learn from it, and we need to understand that this is part of the playoffs ’emotions,’ said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, via Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. “[He was] protect his teammate on the second technical, which is the right thing to do in the playoffs. But the first where it was an air punch, that’s automatic. They shouted one at him, they shouted one at George. So, we’ll avoid that in Game 2, and we’ll go from there. ”
Kristaps Porzingis of the Dallas Mavericks responds to a call and gets a technical foul in the second quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
Porzingis defends his actions
Porzingis admitted after the game that he should have been worse and his emotions could not have gotten any better from him, but he does not regret standing up for Doncic.
He also did not think that what he did was worth a technical foul.
“No of course not. Of course not,” he said when asked if he thought the second technical error was. ‘But I understand it. We got it a bit. I saw him come in Luka’s face. That I did not like it, so I responded.
‘That’s the bad thing about doing their part. I need to be worse next time and control my emotions. ”
NBA fans not happy
It did not take long for some of the biggest names in both the NBA world and the sports world in general to clock up on the draft. Even Clippers coach Doc Rivers said before the start of the fourth quarter on ESPN that it was not happy that Porzingis was out.
Unbelievable. This is the playoffs, man. Cmon.
– Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) August 18, 2020
I think we get some sort of “set a tone” the first day from officers, but that was a bad call
– CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 18, 2020
What a while for the Clippers. No way Porzingis should be put off. One tech for complaining about what he thought was a good block (it was a foul). Now this for haste after Doncic’s defense and giving MMorris a little show. So wrong.
– Skip Shipless (@RealSkipBayless) August 18, 2020
Really really really really stupid and stupid and lazy and unfair to throw out Porzingis for THAT … just terribly wrong and lazy on every level.
– Michael Wilbon (@RealMikeWilbon) August 18, 2020
The entire timeline is rarely in this full agreement, as we are right now on the Porzingis draft.
– Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 18, 2020
Nothing better to end a great day of playoffs than to ruin an otherwise amazing game by shooting Kristaps Porzingis for two terrible techs
– Ben Rohrbach (@brohrbach) August 18, 2020
No one has ever been expelled for doing less than Kristaps Porzingis. “Nonsense stuff” as Van Gundy said.
– Tim Cowlishaw (@TimCowlishaw) August 18, 2020
