Chris Paul was ejected at the end of the Houston Rockets’ 104-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series on Sunday, but what happened during his exchange could be an important matter to consider.
After the game, the analysts on NBATV were debating whether Paul would be facing a suspension for making contact with the referee during his exchange that led to a second technical foul and ejection.
There are two video angles at play. The first doesn’t show much:
CP3 got ejected after this wild Rockets final possession pic.twitter.com/qXqGJ9Yqjo
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 28, 2019
This second video seems to show him making contact:
I don’t think this contact is going to get CP3 a game. After looking at it a few times, I can’t see a game for this. pic.twitter.com/ipFPVB3oxA
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) April 28, 2019
Paul was asked about the matter after the game and said he hadn’t seen it yet.
Chris Paul, asked about contact with referee before he was ejected: “I haven’t seen it yet.”
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 28, 2019
I was pretty shocked that they even brought up the subject of a suspension. There did not seem to be enough there to merit a suspension, especially one that would impact such an important series so deeply.
If anything will change for Game 2, it could be the referees making different foul calls.
