On Thursday evening, the Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets squared off in a battle between teams jockeying for Play-In position in their respective conferences. Late in the third quarter of a single-digit game, a scuffle broke out involving Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan and Houston’s Dillon Brooks. Things escalated to the point where both players were ejected after a lengthy review, but the fireworks began in milder fashion around the six-minute mark of the third quarter.
While attempting to navigate a defensive coverage, DeRozan came flying out toward Jalen Green, and they made significant contact, causing Green to hit the ground and the officiating crew to immediately signal for a review with the potential of a flagrant foul. That could have been the end of it, but Brooks decided to approach DeRozan with a bit of vigor, which led to a skirmish that continued to expand.
When things finally calmed down and the players separated, cameras captured the reactions of both DeRozan and Brooks as the officials announced that each player would be ejected.
By ejection standards, this appeared to be relatively mild, but the league also wants to avoid anything spilling over into a more major issue. It may not have helped that Brooks has a lengthy history of similar altercations, but fortunately, this didn’t go to any wild places and the ejections should be the end of it.
