PJ Tucker Ejected for Punching Blake Griffin (VIDEO)

After getting tangled up in the lane, PJ Tucker and Blake Griffin exchanged blows. Tucker was booted out of the game for punching Griffin, and likely will face disciplinary action from the NBA. Per the AZ Republic:

“We got tangled up, went down and, you know, took a little forearm,” Griffin said. “But it happens. I’ll let someone else handle that.”

And they will, possibly endangering Tucker’s run of starting every Suns game this season. Even though it was not a punch, Tucker’s swinging motion will not go over well on league review, which should also look at Griffin getting up and flailing his left arm without connecting after Gerald Green jumped in to split up the combatants.

“Just playing hard,” Tucker said. “No comment. Just playing hard. That’s it.”

“He was standing there and Blake takes him to the ground and rolls on top of him and he just tries to get him off,” Hornacek said. “I don’t know why that would be a suspension,” Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek said. “That shouldn’t even have been a foul.”

“I think they got it right,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of the loose ball foul, technical foul and ejection for Tucker. “Again, Blake gets hit as much as anybody in the league. I think we’ve all seen it and it gets old. It really does. I think he’s doing the right thing. I really do. He puts his arms up because if he reacts the way some people say he should, then he gets thrown, gets suspended and hurts the team.”