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The Los Angeles Clippers dropped a heartbreaker to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. The focus of the game, aside from Paul George's scary knee injury, was the sequence involving Kawhi Leonard, Terance Mann, and referee Mousa Dagher.
With 4:30 remaining in the first half, Leonard drove to the basket and scored while getting hammered by Thunder forward Ousmane Dieng. Leonard was clearly hit, but no foul was called, so he turned around and clapped his hands in front of the referee and the Clippers' bench.
The referee, Mousa Dagher, hit Kawhi Leonard with a technical foul. Terance Mann, who was near Leonard and started running back on defense, argued with the official about the call. Mann was then hit with a technical foul, to which he responded by clapping his own hands in frustration and muttering a few words. Within a second, Mann was hit with a second technical foul, disqualifying him for the remainder of the game.
Here's the play where Kawhi was very clearly fouled by Dieng and clapped hard enough to earn just the fourth technical foul of his NBA career:
Here’s the play where Kawhi Leonard clearly gets fouled, then gets hit with a technical foul.
Terance Mann then picks up 2 technical fouls and is ejected. Never seen that before. pic.twitter.com/MNKMFevgyT
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 22, 2023
Here's the second technical foul and immediate reaction by Clippers fans to the technical fouls and ejection:
This was one of the wildest referee moments I've seen. Kawhi Leonard clearly got hit on the play, gets hit with a tech, which rarely happens.
Then Terance Mann picks up 2 technical fouls and gets ejected.
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 22, 2023
After the game, Leonard was asked about the play involving himself and Mann.
“I just thought I got fouled,” Kawhi Leonard said. “He said that he gave me the tech because I clapped in his face, but it didn't really look like I was in his face. And I was running back to the other end, but he came back in the second half and said it was his bad. With T-Mann, I really didn't see him do anything too malicious out there, so I don't know why he got thrown out either.”
Mike Fratello went OFF on referee Mousa Dagher, who gave the 3 techs and ejected T-Mann in 5 seconds:
"I do not know that official very well. But whoever it is, he got a little bit carried away with himself. None of these people came here to see you tonight… Shame on you." pic.twitter.com/Iqv5IUdSsK
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 22, 2023
ClutchPoints caught up with Terance Mann after the loss, and he said he didn't think he said anything worthy of an ejection.
“Nothing,” Terance Mann said. “I didn’t say nothin' to him.”
The absence of Mann was especially felt once Paul George suffered his leg injury late in the fourth quarter. The Clippers struggled to score down the stretch, which resulted in the eventual 101-100 loss.
The Clippers and Thunder will play once again on Thursday night, with a lot on the line as far as playoff seeding is concerned.