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Blake Griffin critical of Andre Drummond's ejection call: 'That was bad'

Rod Beard
The Detroit News
Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo commits an offensive foul against Detroit Pistons' Andre Drummond during the second half.

Milwaukee — It was a rough night for Andre Drummond and the Pistons, as they fell by 35 points in the third-largest margin in Bucks franchise history.

Drummond wasn’t around to see the end of it.

In the third quarter of Sunday's lopsided Game 1 loss, Drummond was ejected from the game after being assessed a flagrant-2 foul for pushing Giannis Antetokounmpo. Officials reviewed the call and deemed it the more severe of the flagrant designations, which sent Drummond to the locker room early.

“I actually didn’t see any of the replays. It seemed pretty obvious in the heat of the moment that it was a flagrant-1,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “(Drummond) gave him a good push. It’s part of the playoffs and it didn’t seem like anything besides obviously being a flagrant. It’s part of the game.”

The play happened on an offensive rebound by Antetokounmpo and it appeared Drummond’s quick reaction was to not give up an easy shot near the rim. When he extended his arms to push Antetokounmpo, he went flying.

Thon Maker had two quick fouls on Antetokounmpo, so when Drummond switched to become the primary defender, he had a lot more close encounters.

After the ejection, Blake Griffin, who was sidelined with a knee injury, also received a technical foul for arguing with the officials on Drummond’s flagrant call. Griffin compared it to a recent game in which the Pistons again got the short end of a flagrant designation.

“We had a game against Oklahoma City where Zaza Pachulia was airborne, was elbowed and got hit across the face and it was a flagrant-1,” Griffin said. “In a playoff game, somebody gets pushed and it’s a flagrant-2. That was bad. It was a flagrant, but I don’t think Andre deserved to be out the rest of the game.

“That was my opinion in real time. You have to shore up the line. You can’t have a guy get hit in the face in a regular-season game and get elbowed in the face while he’s elbowed and it be a (flagrant) 1 and that be a (flagrant) 2. If there’s both 1’s, I understand. But it can’t be that big a disparity between the two.”

Rod.Beard@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard