The Wizards, down 0-2 to the Celtics, came out firing in Game 3 as they returned home to Washington. The Wizards jumped out to a big first quarter lead, taking a 22-point advantage into the second quarter, when tempers flared between Kelly Oubre Jr. and Kelly Olynyk after a hard screen.
Olynyk cracked Oubre with a screen that was called an offensive foul — to the chagrin of Olynyk — and Oubre took extreme exception, running up on Olynyk and shoving him, despite referee Monty McCutcheon’s best efforts to keep the two separated.
it's on in Washington https://t.co/iA4PCDS6i1
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) May 5, 2017
Oubre was ejected for a Flagrant 2 after the shove, and one would expect a fine and possible suspension will be coming his way for escalating the situation the way he did. Whether he was right to be upset is up for debate. The screen from Olynyk certainly looked like an offensive foul with the way he leaned into it, and it doesn’t help that Olynyk has a growing reputation for getting overly physical.
No one else was ejected in the incident, as both benches did well to not interject into the altercation and earn suspensions, and the rest of the teams quickly separated everyone and kept it from escalating further.
The frustration of the first two games clearly got to Oubre who let it all out in running over and shoving Olynyk. For a team down 0-2, that’s understandable, but it’s also not something they need right now, losing a rotation player for the rest of Game 3 and possibly Game 4 if he’s suspended, when they’re trying to even the series at home.
