Carmelo Anthony Ejected After Elbowing Jusuf Nurkic While Scoring on a Layup

Oklahoma City Thunder swingman Carmelo Anthony was ejected in the third quarter of his team's 103-99 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.

The ejection occurred after video review of his drive to the basket, which ended with his elbow making contact with Portland big man Jusuf Nurkic's face:

Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic passed along the explanation from NBA crew chief Rodney Mott—who met with pool reporter Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com to clarify why it was a flagrant-2 foul and ejection instead of a flagrant-1 or common foul:

"We deemed that this contact was excessive and that it was not a natural basketball move where he seeks out Nurkic, hits him in the face with an elbow and goes back to the basket. So because it's unnatural and it's deemed excessive, therefore it is a flagrant foul penalty two."

Anthony finished the game with 15 points and six rebounds on 5-of-10 shooting from the field before he was ejected.

NBA analyst and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller did not agree with the call:

The Thunder could have used Anthony down the stretch of the tightly contested Western Conference showdown. Damian Lillard's driving layup put the Trail Blazers up four in the final minute and capped off a spectacular showing with 36 points, 13 assists and five rebounds:

Without Anthony, the Thunder's Big Three couldn't match that of Portland. CJ McCollum scored 22 points, while Nurkic added 25 points and eight rebounds. Paul George (27 points and five boards) and Russell Westbrook (25 points, nine assists and six rebounds) did what they could for the Thunder, but they were missing a marquee scorer in Anthony down the stretch.

That didn't stop the Trail Blazers from weighing in after the victory:

Anthony and Oklahoma City's Big Three will look to end its two-game losing streak Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings. Portland will take its two-game winning streak into a Tuesday matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies.