The Los Angeles Lakers season is over but that doesn’t mean that can’t still affect the playoffs. The team was able to end the season on a high note with a 146-141 win over the Denver Nuggets. The game didn’t mean much but it end up having ramifications for Denver.
During the second quarter of the matchup, Nuggets guard Facundo Campazzo shoved Lakers guard Wayne Ellington in the back, causing him to hit the floor. Campazzo was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and ejected. That’s not the only punishment he’ll face. Campazzo will be suspended for Game 1 of the playoffs against the Golden State Warriors, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Nuggets guard Facundo Campazzo has been suspended for Game 1 of the playoffs vs. Warriors for shoving Lakers’ Wayne Ellington.
Notably, Ellington was not happy after the game. He took to Twitter to threaten Campazzo by saying he’s going to put his hands on him the next time he sees him.
The NBA also didn’t like that as they fined Ellington $20,000 for “escalating the incident.” Obviously, the league has a vested interest in players not getting into fights so Ellington knew what he was doing when he tweeted that message. He also has yet to delete it. The NBA will have to be aware ahead of the next time the two players meet on the basketball court.
For the Nuggets, the loss of Campazzo shouldn’t be too big of a blow. He only averages 5.1 points a game on 18.2 minutes.
Facundo Campazzo was ejected for this flagrant 2 foul on Wayne Ellington.
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Ellington Called Play ‘Very Dangerous’
It likely wasn’t worth $20,000 for Ellington to threaten Campazzo but he was clearly upset with the cheap shot. He believes that he’s lucky that he didn’t get seriously injured by the play.
“That’s very dangerous. And I don’t feel like there’s room in the game of basketball for that,” Ellington said during exit interviews.
“I mean, thank God that I’m able to sit here today, and I’m sitting and talking to you guys because it could have been much worse, it could have been much worse than what it was. You shove a guy in the back like that, you know, there’s a lot of things that can come from that. And I think that’s almost like at the top of the list of plays that you don’t make on a basketball court in terms of how dangerous it could be. So I was heated.”
Former Laker Markieff Morris ended up missing most of the season after a similar cheap shot from Nikola Jokic earlier in the season. Luckily, Campazzo isn’t nearly as big as the reigning MVP or Ellington would’ve gone into the offseason in bad shape.
Ellington Said He Was Confused After Getting Hit
Right after he was hit, it was clear that Ellington didn’t feel great. He had a chance to greatly expand on how he felt directly after getting hit.
“[T]hen, you know, things got kind of blurry for me when I stood back up,” the Lakers guard said. “I saw guys, you know, saying like, ‘No, that’s a dirty play.’ After I got back to the bench I’m like ‘Did he push me? Like, what happened?’ And everybody [was like] ‘Yeah he pushed you, it was a dirty play.’ And I didn’t really realize this, you know, the severity of it until I saw the replay.
“I didn’t see the replay until halftime when I went back in the locker room. So I was like, okay, yeah, that was a dirty a** play.”
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Lakers Guard Punished by NBA for Controversial Tweet