The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night, falling 125-109. On paper, the story of the game would have been Austin Reaves stepping up, scoring 30 points while Luka Doncic looked like a wizard with the ball, dishing out 13 assists.
On the Spurs' side, rookie Stephon Castle continued to be dominant, scoring 23 points and getting the rim with ease, having no problem absorbing contact from larger players.
However, early in the fourth quarter ejections were issued for fighting, and that took over as the main story of the game.
Lakers' forward Jarred Vanderbilt got a little overly physical with Jeremy Sochan, who took exception to the offensive foul, throwing the ball at Vanderbilt. The two had to be separated, although no punches were thrown and it was just a shoving match.
"I didn't see all of it," admitted acting head coach Mitch Johnson of the scrap. "I thought it was a bump with the basketball throw and some macho stuff that was really nothing. I thought they could have called a double tech and moved on, I didn't think they needed to be ejected. But maybe they wanted to de-escalate the situation. I was happy with the fight mentality and the competitiveness in the second half, I thought we did a good job."
Jeremy Sochan and Jarred Vanderbilt were both ejected after a heated fourth-quarter clash. It started with a foul by Vanderbilt, followed by a shove, which led Sochan to fire the ball back at him. Vanderbilt retaliated, and tensions boiled over. pic.twitter.com/hKz9jlJf4g
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Sochan is known around the NBA as someone who always has to have the last word, which is what his toss of the ball clearly was. However, Vanderbilt took exception to the throw and decided to escalate things further. Keldon Johnson was also called for a technical foul, although he stayed in the game.
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The NBA has long cracked down on any sort of physicality, and even though Mitch Johnson held back from calling the ejections "soft," it was pretty clear that was what he was thinking.
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This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM.