NEW ORLEANS — Teammates teased him in the postgame locker room, and interim coach Tiago Splitter said he owed the Portland Trail Blazers a dinner.
But after earning an ejection for his part in a minor donnybrook Wednesday night at the Smoothie King Center, Jerami Grant downplayed his role in the Blazers’ most heated exchange of the season.
“I just got into a little tussle,” Grant said following the Blazers’ 125-117 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The altercation occurred midway through the second quarter, when a seemingly innocuous play snowballed into a commotion involving 10 players and multiple Pelicans coaches.
It started when Blazers Grant and Pelicans center Yves Missi were fighting for rebounding position under the hoop during a Trey Murphy III three-point attempt from the corner. The pair of players became tangled under the hoop, Grant tugging at Missi’s arms and Missi shoving Grant to the baseline.
“He was pushing me on a rebound, I was boxing him out and we got into it,” Grant said, recalling the moment. “Then it was over after that.”
The players yanked and jostled near the basketball stanchion and it appeared that Missi briefly cupped his hands around Grant’s neck. Splitter said after the game that officials told him Grant also grabbed the neck of a Pelicans player. As everything unfolded, players from both teams sprinted toward their teammates and New Orleans coaches hurried from the bench to deescalate the kerfuffle, forming a mass of bodies along the baseline.
When asked if Missi grabbed his neck, Grant pleaded the fifth.
“I really don’t even really know what happened,” Grant said. “Just a little tussling. Heat of the moment. Whatever happened, happened. It ain’t nothing really.”
The players were separated before either threw a punch. But after officials reviewed video of the incident, Grant and Missi were awarded technical fouls and ejected. Additionally, Shaedon Sharpe and Herbert Jones, who were involved in the aftermath, were given technicals.
The game was tied 39-39 at the time of the incident, which came with 6:39 left in the first half. The Blazers (6-5) went on to build a 15-point lead on the way to a win that ended a two-game losing streak.
Splitter said he was pleased with the way his team handled things.
“I didn’t see the film yet,” he said. “It’s part of the game. Sometimes it happens. I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong, to be honest. I think they told me that Jerami grabbed some of their players in the neck and that’s an ejection. We’re not going to back down from anything. I’m not mad at that. I just told Jerami (that he) could be a little bit smarter.”
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