Phoenix Suns star Chris Paul got ejected in an incident involving a game official during the third period of Wednesday's bout against the Houston Rockets. CP3 got two technical fouls in quick succession which led to an early shower for the All-Star point guard.
Paul's second tech, however, can definitely be considered controversial, to say the least. The Suns talisman was ejected after making contact with the referee, which incidentally, does not appear to be completely Paul's fault (h/t Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints):
Chris Paul gets ejected after picking up 2 quick technical fouls, making contact with the official on the second. pic.twitter.com/jB0OZYyzkx
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) February 17, 2022
Paul jammed his right thumb and he was lobbying for a foul from the game official. He clearly wasn't happy that the call was not given and he said something to the ref that warranted a technical foul.
It appeared as though Chris was already walking away when he bumped into the game official moments later. To be fair, the referee moved back a bit and he sort of unknowingly put himself in Paul's path. Was this a case of the referee jumping the gun a bit? Here's a look at the bump in slow motion:
Chris Paul was ejected for bumping into the referee pic.twitter.com/tw5vED9OER
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) February 17, 2022
If you look closely, though, CP3 seems to have put some extra force into his left shoulder right before bumping into the ref. He also wasn't completely surprised when the referee decided to call for his ejection. Did Paul see it coming?
The good news for the Suns is that they were able to escape with a hard-fought victory in Houston here even without their leader on the floor. Phoenix was able to narrowly secure the win against the Rockets, 124-121.
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