Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts was ejected for the first time since taking the team's coaching gig on Friday night, as he was tossed in the third quarter of his team's loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. After the game, Blazers star guard Damian Lillard said that Stotts' ejection was “very necessary,” according to Blazers beat writer Casey Holdahl.
Lillard is not the only Portland player supporting Stotts, as fellow guard CJ McCollum also backed up his coach:
“We appreciate him supporting us,” McCollum said, per Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com. “We're not a team that goes out and complains, but if stuff is blatantly obvious, you can only just run back down the court so many times when you're like, ‘All right, this is getting out of control. This is ridiculous.'”
The ejection occurred when Blazers wing Kent Bazemore was whistled for a shooting foul on Lakers superstar Anthony Davis even though it didn't appear that Bazemore fouled Davis at all.
Davis tumbled into the first row, but replays seemed to indicate that the Los Angeles big man stumbled upon landing rather than a result of any contact from Bazemore.
“Tells you the type of night it was,” McCollum said. “He [Stotts] doesn't just freak out for no reason. He doesn't do that. Kent runs past a guy, doesn't touch him. … Would you be mad?”
McCollum himself was called for a technical foul earlier in the third period after he felt he was fouled by Lakers guard Danny Green.
Portland lost 136-113 and is now just 9-14 on the season.
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