PORTLAND -- After a game that saw Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts ejected for the first time in his NBA coaching career, Blazers guard CJ McCollum called the officiating in Friday's 136-113 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers "very inconsistent all night."
"We appreciate him supporting us," McCollum said. "We're not a team that goes out and complains, but if stuff is blatantly obvious, you can only just run back down the court so many times when you're like, 'All right, this is getting out of control. This is ridiculous.'"
Asked when he'd been ejected before, Stotts had to go back to a game early in his career at the Summer Pro League in Long Beach, California. Friday marked his first ejection in 880 games as an NBA head coach, which had been the longest stretch without an ejection by any current head coach, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Brett Brown of the Philadelphia 76ers is now the active leader, at 514 games.
Stotts' ejection came after a play late in the third quarter, when Portland forward Kent Bazemore was called for a shooting foul on Anthony Davis. Although Davis tumbled into the first row of seats, landing in front of Blazers chair Jody Allen, replays showed that happened due to Davis' stumbling on his landing rather than contact from Bazemore.
"Tells you the type of night it was," McCollum said. "He [Stotts] doesn't just freak out for no reason. He doesn't do that. Kent runs past a guy, doesn't touch him. ... Would you be mad?"
McCollum was called for a technical foul, his second of the season, earlier in the third quarter after his shot was blocked by Danny Green.
"I was clearly fouled," McCollum said. "He hit me in the head, and they didn't call it, so I let [referee Leon Wood] know that he missed the call. He didn't appreciate it."