Draymond Green received his third ejection of the season after striking Jusuf Nurkic in the head during a defensive possession. Green received a flagrant 2 early in the third quarter and later apologized to Nurkic for the unintentional contact. "I am not one to apologize for things I mean to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn't intend to hit him. I sell calls with my arms, so I was selling the call and I swung and unfortunately, I hit him. "You guys have known me long enough, if I intended to do something, I am not apologizing. But I did make contact with him, so I do apologize. It's a hard hit," Green said after the game.
Despite only having played in 15 games this season, Green has already tied his career high for single-season ejections. He was previously ejected for a pair of technical fouls on November 11 and for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold on November 14. Green served a five-game suspension for the latter incident. The league is expected to launch a conduct review on Green after this latest incident.
Jokic Ejected For Swearing At Ref
However, Green wasn't the only player booted from a game last night. In Chicago, Nikola Jokic was ejected from the Nuggets' game against the Bulls for swearing at a referee. "Call the foul, motherf-cker!" Jokic yelled at ref Mousa Dagher. As a result, Jokic became a recipient of the rare one-tech ejection. "Jokic was ejected after one technical foul because he directed profane language at the official that by our standards warranted an ejection," crew chief Mark Lindsay explained after the game.
While Jokic acknowledged that he crossed a line, the Nuggets expressed their surprise at the ejection. "Sometimes it's not even a technical. I crossed the line, I understand, but sometimes that word doesn't cross the line. It is what it is," Jokic said. "I think everybody was surprised it was a one-tech toss. Again, I didn't hear exactly what was said. Unfortunate, but we won the game and that's all that matters," added Nuggets head coach Mark Malone.
[via]