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Kevin Durant was ejected just before halftime of the Warriors’ Thursday night game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Playing for the first time in two weeks, Durant received two extremely quick technical fouls from official Tre Maddox, his fifth ejection of the 2017-2018 season, that ended his night after he played just seventeen minutes.
Kevin Durant has been ejected from tonight's game pic.twitter.com/3kN8r3PPfI
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 30, 2018
Just like that, Durant was finished after scoring 10 points, handing out 6 assists, and grabbing 3 rebounds in his return to the Warriors lineup.
What prompted Durant’s anger at the officials (and Maddox in particular) were the lack of foul calls against the Bucks on drives made by Durant when he thought he’d clearly been fouled.
I rarely criticize the officials, but that was a brutal non-call on Durant's drive. It happens. I think Durant was still steaming over a similar non-call in the first quarter.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) March 30, 2018
While Durant more than likely earned one technical foul for his outburst at Maddox, receiving two that quickly seemed to be a bit on the excessive side.
The ejection earned Durant his thirteenth and fourteenth technical fouls of the season, putting him just two away from an automatic one-game suspension. It won’t matter in the playoffs, as each player’s technical foul counts are reset at the end of the regular season.
However, it continues a trend of technical fouls and ejections that is new for Durant and could create problems if it extends into the playoffs.