The Kristaps Porzingis ejection was so unpopular last night that the opposing head coach said he didn’t like the decision. One of the opposing players didn’t like it either.

“I hate that,” said Doc Rivers, whose displeasure was echoed on social media by LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzski, and Patrick Mahomes, among many others who thought the tossing of the Latvian unicorn was unnecessary and put a damper on an exciting NBA playoff game.

Here’s the first tech:

Maybe some arm there, but looked like a relatively clean block otherwise. Regardless, they T’d him up for the fist pump complaint, which refs have done before, though it’s certainly weak.

Here’s the second tech:

Porzingis had played 20 minutes at that point. The Mavericks were up five and went on to lose 118-110.

It’s just soft stuff all around, same with the Al Horford flagrant last night that was embellished by Jaylen Brown. It’s one thing to police the game appropriately and keep it from getting out of control, but that wasn’t the case with Porzingis, and when you’re ejecting star players and taking some juice out of an otherwise enjoyable game, then everybody loses. We don’t have to go back to the physicality of the mid-90s, but we have to let these guys play the game.