It’s some Bruin on Bruin crime.
Kevin Love was having a monster night (he finished with 45 and 19) and the Clippers big men had no answer for him (or Nikola Pekovic) when this happened:
Love got the ball at the three point line, pump faked and that just burned Ryan Hollins, so Love put it on the floor and drove the lane, went up and Matt Barnes came in with the hard foul. Words were exchanged, and they were not words with friends. The referees called it a Flagrant 1, reviewed it and after seeing a hit to the head upgraded this to a Flagrant 2 and ejected Barnes.
To me, the league needs to lessen this penalty — yes it was certainly a foul and there was contact to the head, but Barnes was making a play on the ball here and it wasn’t that severe. This wasn’t a swing at Love’s head.
What could really get Barnes in trouble is he didn’t leave the court immediately, instead going over to argue with the referee. He did not leave the court in a timely manner.
My guess is Barnes gets just a fine for this, no suspension. But not leaving the court could make it a healthy suspension.