Basketball fans from all over the world were thrilled about the start of the playoffs. The setup was perfect. The Nuggets and Jazz went to overtime, the Nets came back from a huge deficit vs. the Raptors, and Celtics vs. Sixers went down to the wire. Then, the most exciting matchup of the night was ruined by poor refereeing.
Porzingis was ejected after two soft technical fouls. That ejection took a major toll on the game outcome, as the Mavericks were actually giving the Clippers a run for their money. So, when asked about if he felt like he should have been tossed, the Latvian star didn’t hold back:
“No, of course not. But I understand we got into it a little bit. And I saw him getting into Luca’s face and I didn’t like that. That’s why I reacted, and that’s a smart thing to do from their part. I just got to be smarter and control my emotions. Especially on the 1st one I understand about the second one, but the first one, even though I felt it was a clean block. They’re probably gonna call that tech for throwing a hand every time. So I was got to be smart and not let my emotions get the better on me,” Porzingis said.
Kristaps was clearly disgusted about the referee’s poor officiating so he didn’t waste the opportunity to take a shot at the Clippers’ role players, claiming his job was to get on his nerves and take him out of the game:
“Yes, not their main guys, but some of the other guys. That’s their job. That’s part of their game and we can’t fall into that,” he said.
Porzingis was having an outstanding evening with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist in just 20 minutes. Hopefully, that’ll be the last ejection we see in the playoffs. Let the guys play man, c’mon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF91pSF27NI
