2011 NBA Playoffs: Paul Pierce's Ejection Mirrors Perkin's Ejection Last Year

Paul Pierce's ejection in today's game against the Heat was, to say the least, a questionable call and is the cause of controversy early in this Celtics-Heat Eastern Conference Semifinals.  

The Celtics are no strangers to unjust ejections in playoff games. If you remember, last year in the Eastern Conference Finals, former Celtic Kendrick Perkins was ejected after an equally questionable second technical foul in Game 5. After he turned away from the refs and threw up his hands in frustration over the foul he had just committed, he was hit with his second technical foul and ejected. An equally puzzling call by the refs. Both calls were very costly to the Celtics.

When refs take over the game with ejections like that, it just isn't fair. Those are the types of calls that would make Tim Donaghy blush. And the Celtics have been on the wrong end of it more than once. When the stakes are the highest in the playoffs, the refs should let the players play and not try to change the game with questionable ejections. Emotions run higher in the playoffs, and refs must understand that.

Being upset over a call or saying something to an opposing player are common occurrences not only in playoff basketball but also regular season basketball, and neither of those offenses are grounds for ejection—especially in a big game.

It was a shame that Tommy Heinsohn was not calling this game; somewhere, he is cursing out the refs.  And maybe he is right when he says the refs are out to get the Celtics. If he was calling the game, I guarantee he would have re-used one of his old lines and said, "He's a young referee... and I HOPE HE DOESN'T GET MUCH OLDER" about the young referee Ed Malloy who threw Paul Pierce out.

Pierce's ejection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpN6J51mMjo

Perk's ejection:

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/playoffs/2010/05/26/0040900305_bos_orl_play3.nba/