NBA says Blake Griffin should not have been ejected

As far as the Clippers are concerned, it did not help them when the NBA announced Thursday that Blake Griffin shouldn’t have been ejected from the game between Los Angeles and the Golden State Warriors on Christmas.

Griffin was ejected by the officials after he was issued a technical foul, his second of the game, when he got tangled with Golden State’s Andrew Bogut with 10:43 left in a game the Clippers lost, 105-103, on Wednesday night in Oakland.

Griffin’s first technical came when the Clippers power forward and Golden State reserve Draymond Green were given technical fouls at the end of the third quarter.

Rod Thorn, the NBA’s president of basketball operations, issued a statement regarding Griffin’s ejection.

“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,” 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.”

Bogut was given a foul on the play, but it mattered little to the Clippers because Griffin was tossed and had to watch the outcome from the locker room.

After the game, Griffin expressed his disbelief in his ejection and the tactics used by the Warriors.

“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 [the officials] fell for it. To me, that’s cowardly. That’s cowardly basketball.”

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