Blake Griffin was issued a flagrant-2 foul and automatically ejected in the third quarter of the Clippers' game against the Bulls on Thursday.
On the play, Griffin swiped at Taj Gibson, missing the ball and hammering him across his face. A flagrant-2 foul is deemed as "unnecessary and excessive contact committed by a player against an opponent."
Clippers' Blake Griffin ejected for flagrant foul 2 on Bulls' Taj Gibson pic.twitter.com/kCls1lTqTl
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 11, 2015
It does appear as if Griffin was going for the ball and simply missed rather than just swinging wildly, but referees deemed the foul "unnecessary" and sent him out of the game. It's his fourth ejection of his career.
Griffin was the only good thing the Clippers had going for them offensively in a game where they're shooting slightly more than 30 percent through three quarters. Griffin had 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting prior to the ejection.