Lakers fans mad after Deandre Ayton ejection in NBA Playoffs Game 4 vs. Rockets originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Coach JJ Redick trusted Deandre Ayton to become a main focal point of the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 against the Houston Rockets. The big man was doing good in cleaning the glass and helping LeBron James through his screens. More than that, he was also doing great in the post against Alperen Sengun. But, his night was cut short due to an ejection after a Flagrant 2 foul.
In the third quarter of the Lakers and Rockets Game 4 bout, Deandre Ayton had the hard task of defending Alperen Sengun. Unfortunately, the Lakers big man was not able to contain the Rockets star enough. Whether it was a mistake or just a natural motion on defense, Ayton threw his elbow straight to Sengun's chin during a post move. This resulted into Ayton getting a Flagrant 2 foul. The referees described the motion as 'excessive and unnecessary' which meant that Ayton had to be ejected.
Kevin Durant waved Ayton good bye to do a bit of trolling. Understandably, Lakers fans saw all of this and could not believe that Ayton got ejected.
"Refs could've just told us it was a scheduled loss at the start of the game and let us go home early what the hell is that on Ayton," and, "Ayton got done dirty. That was not a flagrant" were common sentiments off social media.
"It looked like he was trying to put his forearm into Sengun’s back but he was lower than Ayton thought he was gonna be. F1 is be fine with but F2 is usually reserved for the most malicious s***. That wasn’t that," another Lakers fan said.
One Lakers fan wanted to clarify that Ayton was not supposed to be ejected, "That is absolutely not a flagrant 2! This game has been riddled with bad calls & they’ve just topped it off by ejecting DeAndre Ayton for what should have been a flagrant 1 tops"
Coach JJ Redick has only seen Ayton play 25 minutes prior to the ejection. He was leading the Lakers in scoring with his 19 points while shooting on a 75% clip on the field. Ayton also grabbed 10 rebounds to round out his night.
Did the referees make the right call to eject Ayton in Game 4 of the Lakers and Rockets NBA Playoffs series?