As the Oklahoma City Thunder fell into a deep hole to the Houston Rockets in the third quarter of Game 5 on Saturday, their best offensive player of the night got ejected.
Dennis Schroder, who had 19 points in the first half, was kicked out alongside P.J. Tucker midway through the third quarter.
“It was obviously an illegal screen,” Thunder head coach Billy Donovan said. “It was kind of a bang-bang play. P.J., obviously, after the play was over, he kind of headbutted Dennis, so they certainly had to eject him. And I didn’t know if they felt like they needed to eject Dennis because they ejected P.J.”
On the play, P.J. Tucker set a screen. Dennis Schroder tried to fight through it as he attempted to keep up with James Harden, but as he did, his arm went between Tucker’s legs. Schroder struck him in the groin.
PJ Tucker and Dennis Schroeder were both just ejected after Schroder hit Tucker in the groin, and Tucker then headbutted him.
(via @NotDubs408)pic.twitter.com/qN6BNUV45C
— FanSided (@FanSided) August 30, 2020
The referee blew the whistle, and as Schroder got up, talking toward the referee, Tucker stood up angrily and yelled at Schroder from behind. Tucker then bumped Schroder’s head with his own.
“It was a very, very quick, aggressive play,” Donovan said. “And I understand with P.J. getting thrown out, maybe they felt like Dennis needed to be thrown out, but again, it was an illegal screen.”
While Donovan said he didn’t want to guess what Schroder was doing, he added that he thought the guard did not intend to strike Tucker in the groin.
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“I’m not even going to speculate or even know to read Dennis’ mind. I think it was such a bang-bang play, Dennis was just trying to find a way to get around the screen, and it certainly was an illegal screen, and he got hung up,” Donovan said.
Oklahoma City was unable to catch up or even make the game a contest after the ejection. They lost 114-80, and only scored 20 points in one of the four quarters.
Schroder finished the game with a team-high 19 points in 21 minutes on 6-for-13 shooting.
Tucker had five points in 21 minutes on 2-for-5 shooting.
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