JJ Barea was ejected for deliberately pushing Ray Allen during the Miami Heat’s 97-81 win over the Timberwolves in Minnesota Monday.
Barea felt like Allen had bumped (or elbowed) him while backing him down beyond the 3-point line with just over eight minutes left in the game and the Heat up 76-70. He responded by pushing Allen to the ground a few seconds later, causing a scuffle between the teams.
Barea, who at 6-foot-0 is the smallest player on the floor, was charged with a flagrant 2 foul, which calls for an automatic ejection.
During an interview on NBA TV after the game, Allen called Barea’s move “bush league.”
“Yeah, I thought it was a bush-league move by Barea, just kind of leveling me like that,” Allen told NBA TV’s Brent Barry. “I don’t care who you are in the league, you’ve got to defend yourself. You play the game the right way and I try to do that in my career. He got ejected for I think due purpose.”
Barea said after the game he felt Allen overreacted to a “little bump.”
“He hit me with an elbow almost close to my neck,” Barea complained after the game, per Eye on Basketball. “That’s part of the game and then I just gave him a bump back. I’ve been playing in the NBA for seven years. I’ve been hit, I get hit harder than that every night. I don’t get up crying, wanting to fight. (Former Lakers center Andrew) Bynum almost knocked me out for the rest of my life. I didn’t get up crying. You know? It’s a little bump so it’s part of the game. Don’t be like that. That’s why the refs got all upset about it but it’s just a little bump.
“That was terrible,” he said. “I get hit harder than that every night in the NBA.”
Allen had 13 points in 26 minutes, while Barea had four points, four rebounds, and four assists in 21 minutes before his ejection.
Given his history of being on the receiving end of cheap shots (as he referenced in the quote above), you would think Barea would be above such behavior. Apparently he’s not.
Video via @beyondthebuzzer
