Things took a little longer to get heated between the Bulls and the Heat in Game 3 than they did in Game 2, but the first ejection of the night came much faster.
Early in the second quarter with the Bulls holding a three-point lead, Nazr Mohammed committed a hard foul on LeBron James just as he crossed half court. It’s unclear why Mohammed chose this course of action; the only thing we can think of was that maybe he was trying to stop a transition opportunity from the Heat by intentionally fouling (a common tactic in European basketball), though Miami didn’t appear to be in a strong position to force the action at the time.
After Mohammed’s hard foul, James made sure to toss Mohammed to the floor after the two became briefly tangled up. The official was right on top of the play, and correctly whistled James for a technical foul, even before Mohammed reacted by shoving James to the floor with two hands.
Boneheaded plays by Mohammed all around, as the foul itself wasn’t really a great decision -- and the shove, even less so.
Mohammed was ejected for his actions, leaving the already shorthanded Bulls even more depleted from the standpoint of available players.
This was the second extracurricular incident in a game that was less than 15 minutes old. Joakim Noah shoved Chris Andersen in the first quarter, after Andersen fell on top of Nate Robinson following the blocking one of his shots.