Warriors, ejection upset Clippers' Griffin; NBA admits mistake
Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin called out the Golden State Warriors for playing "cowardly basketball" after his ejection in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night's game.
Griffin was angry after he was whistled for his second technical of the game when he became entangled with Golden State forward Andrew Bogut in the lane and tried to pull away with 10:43 left. The NBA announced Thursday that the game officials erred in ejecting Griffin.
"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 vice president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said. "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."
The Warriors trailed after three quarters but rallied for a 105-103 win over the Clippers.
"If you look at it, I didn't do anything and I got thrown out of the game," Griffin said. "It all boils down to they (referees) fell for it. To me, that's cowardly. That's cowardly basketball."
Griffin was called for his first technical at the end of the third quarter when he spoke to Warriors forward Draymond Green about being elbowed. Green was ejected for a flagrant-2 foul and then fined $15,000 by the league on Thursday for failing to leave the court in a timely manner.
"Instead of just playing straight up and playing a game, it got into something more than that, and it's unfortunate because you want to play a team head-to-head," Griffin said. "You don't want to start playing other games and playing cowardly basketball."
Clippers coach Doc Rivers stood by Griffin.
"Honestly, I thought we were just kicking their butts and they went to something else, to be honest," Rivers said. "But that's fine."
Warriors coach Mark Jackson chose to stay out of the fray.
"We like them. Merry Christmas," he said.
