Austin Rivers Got Ejected For Faking Throwing An Elbow At Lance Stephenson

The Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, 125-118, which is far from a surprising or even noteworthy result, given Denver is trying to make the postseason while the Pacers are trying to get better lottery odds right now.

However, considering Denver led by 28 after the first quarter and then found themselves trailing in the second half, things were much more competitive than anticipated, and that resulted in a rather bizarre sequence that saw Austin Rivers get ejected from a close game in the fourth quarter. Rivers found himself in a pair of incidents with Lance Stephenson, first a kerfuffle in the corner that saw some pushing, shoving, and jawing before the two were separated.

After that, Rivers decided to send Stephenson a message about his overly aggressive ball pressure by faking throwing an elbow at Stephenson’s chin, which didn’t come close to making actual contact, but Stephenson jumped back and pointed to the officials, which somehow resulted in Tony Brothers ruling it a second T on Rivers and an ejection.

It’s as bizarre an ejection as you’ll see, particularly since they went to the monitor to look at it and you can clearly see there wasn’t contact, but it still sent Rivers to an early shower. The good news is the Nuggets didn’t need the point guard to pull out the victory, but Rivers will face a fine for this unless it’s rescinded, which many, including Kevin Durant, think should happen.

Rivers, likewise, couldn’t believe he got tossed for that and hopes the league looks at it.