Official Dan Crawford spoke to an AP reporter after the game and explained the two technical fouls on Paul Pierce.
I suggest you sit down before you read any further. Maybe grab a drink. Do some yoga or meditation.
Ok?
Q: What did Paul Pierce do to merit the 2nd technical with 7:00 remaining?
Crawford: "It's what we call a verbal taunt. He directed profanity towards (Dwyane) Wade. And in the rulebook, that is a verbal taunt. And it just so happened to be Pierce's second technical foul."
Q: What did Pierce do for the technical after the (James) Jones foul with 7:59 left?
Crawford: "The first technical foul, it was contact during a dead ball. He approached Jones and got right in his face. There wasn't a head-butt, but he got right into his face after a hard foul."
Yes. You read that correctly. Pierce directed a profanity at Wade. He swore at him. That warranted a second technical and an ejection.
HEY…
That's a tech on you for your reaction to that. You're ejected from your room. Go outside for the rest of the night.
I'll repeat what I said on Twitter after the explanation came out: If players got techs every time they swore at each other, every player would be tossed from every game… and KG would be executed.
Props to Doc Rivers for telling it like it is during the game:
There's nothing more to say. Chuck was right on in the recap. The refs didn't cost the C's the game. The Celtics did a great job of losing on their own. But a few calls… the second Pierce tech in particular… were atrocious and need to be addressed.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
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