March 03--The NBA released a review of the last two minutes of Monday's game between the Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, in which they determined that J.J. Redick's ejection was the correct call.
Redick was ejected with 1 minute 6 seconds left after picking up two technical fouls for engaging a referee about Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders' venturing onto the court.
Here's what the league said about that sequence:
"Redick makes comments and gestures deemed contrary to the NBA's 'respect for the game' guidelines and is issued a second unsportsmanlike technical. All unsportsmanlike technicals are reviewed by Rod Thorn after games
"Coach Saunders complains while on the court and is assessed an unsportsmanlike technical. Redick yells at Saunders and is assessed an unsportsmanlike technical. By rule, two technicals on opposing teams during a timeout offset.
"This unsportsmanlike technical foul is Redick's second and results in an ejection."
Redick expressed his thoughts on what happened after Monday's 110-105 win.
"I'm not sure why he [Saunders] was out on the court, but he was yelling and stuff, so I said to the ref, 'Man, get him off the court,'" Redick said. "And Flip turned to me and said, 'Man, shut ... up.' And he said it like three times. And I just walked to my spot and I got a double technical for that.
"So I shouldn't have kept talking, but all I said to [referee] Josh [Tiven] was, 'I'm going to get my money back,' and he threw me out for that. If I'm going to get thrown out, man, at least let me say some stuff."
The other controversial call happened with 14.9 seconds left when Minnesota point guard Ricky Rubio appeared to have stepped out of bounds before he could call a timeout. The ball was given to the Timberwolves, who then had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds with the Clippers up by three, 108-105.
The league determined that the referees made the right call in giving the ball to the Timberwolves, writing: "Timeout is correctly awarded to MIN as Rubio has possession and is inbounds when he makes the timeout request."
Luckily for the Clippers, Gary Neal missed a three-point attempt with 10.9 seconds left. The Clippers' Dahntay Jones was then fouled and made two free throws to seal the win.
