By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Less than three minutes into Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal series between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors, Dillon Brooks was ejected with a flagrant 2 foul on Gary Payton II, which resulted in a broken elbow for the latter.
With 9:08 to go in the first quarter, Brooks was chasing down Payton from behind on a fastbreak layup when he hit the Warriors guard in the head up in the air. Payton was knocked down and stayed on the floor for several minutes before the officials ejected Brooks.
After undergoing an X-ray scan on his left elbow later on Tuesday, Payton has been ruled out for the Warriors with a fracture.
“I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “There is a code. This code that players follow where you never put a guy’s season [or] career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in mid-air and clubbing him across the head, ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow. He broke the code. Dillon Brooks broke the code.”
“This is a guy who’s been toiling trying to make it the last six years in this league, finally found a home and just playing his butt off this year,” Kerr added. “He’s in the playoffs, this should be the time of his life, and a guy comes in and whacks him across the head in mid-air”.
This series is definitely a physical one. Back in Game 1 in Golden State, Draymond Green was ejected with less than two minutes left in the first half of the game, after being called with a flagrant 2 foul on Brandon Clarke.
Game 3 of the semifinals tips off Sunday (02:30 CET) in San Francisco.