Horford ejected for flagrant 2 - Cavs win close game

[crimson_stallion]

Has anybody else yet seen the footage of the play that caused Horford to get ejected today?

Hawks up by one point heading towards half time, there's a scramble for a loose ball, Horford falls on Dellavaladovalladovaladova (whatever his name is) and the officials call a Flagrant 2 and eject Horford.

Firstly, I challenge anybody to look at the replay and tell me that this play is not at the very least questionable, and that it is clearly obvious Flagrant 2.  I don't think Horford even hits his head, I sure as hell don't think it's intentional.

Secondly, when in the history of NBA does the best player on a team get ejected for a Flagrant 2 that is anything less than a blatantly obvious intentional thug move?

This league has always had the mentality that in the playoffs you let them play - make it a flagrant one, review it later, and upgrade if necessary.  Unless of course it's completely undebatable (player throws a punch, etc)  then you have no choice.

Based on past history of how flagrants are usually handed out, combined with the video footage I'm seeing, I cannot look at this replay and see anything but blatantly obvious match fixing.  It's disgusting, and there is no way that gets called if this was any team other than the Cavs.

The Hawks are not an exciting team, they have no superstars - this is not the type of team that's going to draw in a lot of viewers.  Cleveland vs Golden State in the finals, however, would draw in the TV ratings like no tomorrow. 

I'm just disgusted.  Again.

[D Dub]

Well, Sprite ain't selling Horford's mix..

[D Dub]

In all seriousness, I don't blame Al.  Delladadova tried to take out his knees; after taking out his teammates ankle the other night.   Looked like Al got him with the old randy-savage elbow drop. 

Should earn the cavs player a suspension I'd hope.  Seems to be developing a habit of this sort of thing

[zubi.anaba]

In all seriousness, I don't blame Al.  Delladadova tried to take out his knees; after taking out his teammates ankle the other night.   Looked like Al got him with the old randy-savage elbow drop. 

Should earn the cavs player a suspension I'd hope.  Seems to be developing a habit of this sort of thing

Is intentionally swinging an elbow above a players neck an ejection?

[Adelaide Celt]

That no good dirty scoundrel Matt Dellavedova trying to injure Horford's elbow with his throat whilst at the same time deviously placing his shoulder in Horford's grasp. Surely he'll get a 10 game suspension for that!

[Denis998]

Looking at it with an unbiased point of view, after Matt fell Al clearly wound up and hit him with his elbow. At that point, the "intention" of the play supersedes the area the player was hit in, although it is more probable than not that Matt did get hit in the neck/face area. The same thing could be said if a player punches another in the gut and gets tossed out afterwards, even though the player that got hit did not get hit in the face, the intention to harm was still there. While considering Matt's rolling about the floor antics, that should not be factored into the calling of the flagrant, however he did get a tech for it.

[knuckleballer]

Looking at it with an unbiased point of view, after Matt fell Al clearly wound up and hit him with his elbow. At that point, the "intention" of the play supersedes the area the player was hit in, although it is more probable than not that Matt did get hit in the neck/face area. The same thing could be said if a player punches another in the gut and gets tossed out afterwards, even though the player that got hit did not get hit in the face, the intention to harm was still there. While considering Matt's rolling about the floor antics, that should not be factored into the calling of the flagrant, however he did get a tech for it.

I have to take Dellavedova's previous floor antics into account.  He did it to Taj Gibson, he ended Korver's season, and now he crashes into Horford's knees.  These aren't accidents.  It's understandable for Horford to be wary of him and to react angrily when he did.  Dellavedova is showing a pattern of trying to injure players in this way and Horford does not have a reputation for this behavior. The refs needed to show some judgment and should have given Horford a flagrant 1.

[jambr380]

I've watched the play a bunch of times, and, while it's obvious that Horford did have some intent coming down on to Dellavedova, it is nothing compared to what Perk did to Carroll...and he did not get ejected.

Taking into account Dellavedova's recent history of taking guys out at the legs and also this being the playoffs, the refs really should have erred on the side of flagrant 1 and upgrade if necessary after the game. The series is now over instead of [very likely] 2-1. Horford was stupid, but he didn't go all JR Smith either.

[GreenWarrior]

someone outside the NBA needs to police the NBA. Dellavedova now has a track record, the NBA did nothing about it, & now it's escalated and the players want to take it upon themselves to police the situation.

and because the NBA did nothing they've completely ruined a playoff series...and paved the way for the Cavs in the process.

you'd think this would be illegal.

[Endless Paradise]

Horford was far from the innocent victim people are painting him out to be. He initiated contact with Delly and threw him to the ground, Delly decided he'd try to one-up him with a dirty move, and then Horford responded in kind.

[LGC88]

Horford did it on purpose because he was fed up with Dellavedova rolling on people's ankle and knees just for the sake of hustling for the ball.
Horford deserve the flagrant 2 according the rule. I'm hoping Horford manage to give the message to the nba that what Dellavedova do is not ok.
I mean, if it's ok to roll over people's leg when you try to reach for the ball, I can tell you players like Smart will injure 2 players per game and be innocent regarding nba rules.

[GreenWarrior]

really if Horford's intention was revenge. he should've got his money's worth.

[loco_91]

It looked pretty intentional to me. I thought Horford had his balance back and then basically jumped on Delly elbow-first.

[BudweiserCeltic]

LeBron on Olynyk:

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/12947907/2015-nba-playoffs-lebron-james-says-matthew-dellavedova-undeserving-bad-rap

"Well, you just play the game the right way," James said. "At this point, you try to do whatever it takes to win. You don't want to hurt nobody. No one, I think, in our league goes around trying to hurt people. But you don't take the aggressive nature out of the game.

[Roy H.]

Initially I thought it should have been a Flagrant 1.

Listening to some of the arguments, I guess the intent matters more than the contact.  You've got to deter behavior like that, and giving somebody the People's Elbow could seriously injure them.  It was obviously deliberate.

So, even though he didn't connect fully, I've talked myself into a Flagrant 2.