Kristaps Porzingis collected 2 technical fouls early in the 3rd quarter against the Clippers. This led to the first ejection of his career, in his first playoff appearance.
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The Dallas Mavericks have made their first appearance in the playoffs since 2016. They were banking on their young, dynamic duo of Porzingis and Doncic to win them Game 1, but some rough officiating messed up that possibility.
Even LeBron James had his say on the topic, calling it a rough call.
Kristaps Porzingis ejection
Kristaps Porzingis got his first technical for an indignant punch of the air when reacting to a blocking foul. Replays showed that Porzingis had made a clean attempt to block Paul George’s layup attempt. Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle wanted to challenge the call, but he was too late in his attempt.
The second technical foul that KP was called for was much more justifiable, though. Marcus Morris was called for a hard foul which he’d committed on Luka Doncic. Doncic and Morris got in each other’s faces after Morris threw some afters at him. Porzingis arrived on the scene and began shoving Morris away, leading to his second technical and an automatic ejection.
This decision placed the onus fairly on Doncic to increase both his scoring and his playmaking output, which the sophomore did without fuss. Doncic at one point had more free throws taken than the entire Clippers team.
The call came with 9:10 remaining in the 3rd quarter, with the score 71-66 in favour of the Mavs. KP’s ejection led to the Clippers making a 13-5 run to take the lead. At the time of writing, the LA Clippers led the score 101-98 with 7:36 left in the 4th quarter.
