Nate Robinson Chucked After Flagrant Foul on Lance Stephenson

The Chicago Bulls beat the Indiana Pacers, 87-84, for their first win over the Pacers this season, but they were without their scoring spark plug, Nate Robinson, for the fourth quarter.

You know it's a bad foul when Stacey King and Neil Funk are both upset with the excessive contact that Robinson had with Lance Stephenson, although King ends up complaining that the foul was upgraded to a flagrant-2.

The whole way through, Robinson looked like he was going to stop the free bucket at all costs, and he does it by tackling Stephenson right before he goes up for the bucket.

"

Chicago crowd questioning foul, but they cheered Nate Robinson, so their judgment is questionable.

— Tim Donahue (@TimDonahue8p9s) March 24, 2013"

"

Nate Robinson comes from behind and throws Stephenson to the ground. Pacers assistant Jim Boylen is yelling to throw him out.

— Mike Wells (@MikeWellsNBA) March 24, 2013"

"

A Flagrant-2 is called on Nate Robinson who took down Lance Stephenson. Robinson is ejected from the game.

— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) March 24, 2013"

Nate seems to be on a bit of a bad-boy streak this year, collecting seven technical fouls so far and his third flagrant foul point of the year, getting two for this incident and one for a previous flagrant-1.

It seems as if Robinson has picked up a bit of an edge playing for the Bulls, possibly something he's developed playing in Tom Thibodeau's defense.

Either way, this is definitely a situation where he went a bit overboard, and the punishment fit the crime.