{"id":287797,"date":"2026-04-27T07:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287797\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:27:10","slug":"even-the-rockets-thought-deandre-aytons-ejection-was-soft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287797\/","title":{"rendered":"Even the Rockets thought Deandre Ayton’s ejection was ‘soft’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Deandre Ayton<\/a> has a simple explanation for his first career ejection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both sweaty guys,\u201d the Lakers<\/a> center said after his accidental elbow to the back of Alperen Sengun<\/a>\u2018s head resulted in his ejection from Sunday\u2019s loss to the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n

The Lakers center was assessed a flagrant foul 2 with 5:41 remaining in the third quarter of the 115-96 Game 4 loss<\/a>. It \u201clooked crazy on camera,\u201d Ayton acknowledged, but it was not malicious.<\/p>\n

Ayton said he was bracing for contact against the 6-foot-11, 243-pound Sengun and Ayton\u2019s arm simply slipped off Sengun\u2019s shoulder and hit his head. It didn\u2019t affect Sengun at all: he finished with 19 points and six rebounds on six-of-12 shooting as the Rockets forced a Game 5 on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PDT at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not no guy who is a dirty player or plays like that,\u201d Ayton said. \u201cIf anything, me trying to play dirty, I\u2019ll damn near hurt myself. I just hope he\u2019s all right and they don\u2019t think it was intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sengun and Rockets coach Ime Udoka<\/a> both said the flagrant 2 call \u2014 which characterizes an act as \u201cunnecessary and excessive\u201d \u2014 was \u201csoft.\u201d Sengun said he didn\u2019t expect Ayton to be ejected for the play. When crew chief James Williams declared that Ayton would be sent off, the Lakers center simply dropped his head and walked to the locker room. Injured Rockets star Kevin Durant, who missed the game with a bone bruise in his sprained left ankle, waved goodbye from the Rockets bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud of the way he handled it, and I think that just speaks volume about who he is and his progression,\u201d Lakers guard Marcus Smart said. \u201cHe\u2019s learning, he\u2019s continuing \u2014 it probably would have been justifiable if he went off, right? But to keep his composure and stay positive, I think that\u2019s only going to help him and this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lakers' <\/p>\n

Lakers\u2019 Jarred Vanderbilt (2) and Deandre Ayton (5) go up for a rebound against Houston forward Tari Eason during the first half Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Karen Warren \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

It was the first time Ayton was ejected in his eight-year NBA career. The center, to the chagrin of many in the NBA, has long been known more for his finesse touch shots than physical play. Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> called Ayton, \u201ca sweet, just, like, kind soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lakers coaches and teammates have tried to encourage him to increase his intensity and aggressiveness. General manager Rob Pelinka even made a custom shirt with half of Ayton\u2019s face next to the face of a lion.<\/p>\n

Ayton answered the call Sunday with 19 points and 10 rebounds. He was one of the Lakers\u2019 only forms of consistent offense in the blowout loss. Outside of Ayton and Rui Hachimura<\/a>, who shot six for 10 with 13 points, the Lakers were shooting 31.3% from the field in the first three quarters. They trailed by as many as 26 points as Smart and LeBron James<\/a>, veterans who led the team to a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, looked worn down with Luka Doncic<\/a> (hamstring) and Austin Reaves<\/a> (oblique) still sidelined.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been tough for DA,\u201d said Smart, who had nine points, five assists and four turnovers. \u201cWe\u2019ve been hard on him. He\u2019s been hard on himself. You guys have been hard on him. … He\u2019s been taking it, embracing it and trying to get better and better. Today he showed that. He came out, we relied on him a little bit more. He made plays for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayton soon had company in the Lakers locker room after teammate Adou Thiero and Rockets guard Aaron Holiday were both ejected after receiving two technical fouls with 1:11 remaining in the fourth quarter. They got tangled up under the basket and exchanged words briefly.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Thiero, who entered the game midway through the fourth quarter when the Lakers cleared their bench, made a memorable playoff debut by scoring his first postseason basket with an emphatic alley-oop dunk over Dorian Finney-Smith. But the premature ending to his first postseason appearance was \u201cuncalled for,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made no sense,\u201d said James, who had 10 points and nine assists but eight turnovers. \u201c… I don\u2019t think that was warranted. Give him two technicals? The kid just got in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the physical game, players from both teams jawed back and forth at midcourt after the final buzzer. Much of the Lakers bench and some coaches approached to help diffuse the situation. Redick said he was simply poking his head into the situation the way people might turn their heads to gawk at commotion in a bar. When he determined nothing was happening, he left.<\/p>\n

\u201cHilarious,\u201d Smart said with a smirk of the postgame skirmish. \u201cVery hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Deandre Ayton has a simple explanation for his first career ejection. \u201cWe\u2019re both sweaty guys,\u201d the Lakers center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[56619,20294,423,36294,48,52,51,1415,123232,13505,47,50,49,3289,1420,3238,1417,26751,28471,123233,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-287797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-deandre-ayton","10":"tag-game","11":"tag-head","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-lakers","16":"tag-lakers-center","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-loss","22":"tag-marcus-smart","23":"tag-play","24":"tag-point","25":"tag-quarter","26":"tag-rockets","27":"tag-sweaty-guy","28":"tag-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}