J.J. Barea knocks Blake Griffin to the ground, gets ejected (Video)

J.J. Barea and Blake Griffin don’t like each other. Here is Barea taking their rivalry to the next level by bring him to the ground and later gets ejected.

Despite a major height differential between the two basketball players, Dallas Mavericks point guard J.J. Barea and Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin are on-court rivals. They don’t really like each other, so things got interesting when their two teams met in Dallas on Thursday night.

Griffin is seen shoving Barea on a screen and Barea didn’t like that at all. So he retaliates by bringing Griffin to the ground like something you’d see on WWE. It was an amazing use of leverage tactics. The refs immediately blew the whistle and Barea was eventually ejected from the game for this takedown.

It’s starting to become a thing where NBA teams that aren’t really thriving have players on their clubs lose their tempers. On national television earlier in the week, Chicago Bulls center Robin Lopez and Toronto Raptors power forward got into a fist fight after a highly contested rebound. Both were ejected.

Barea’s Mavericks are simply running out of time to align themselves for a late-season playoff push. Dallas has been decent at times this season, but a dreadful start to their season ultimately did them in. Los Angeles is in win-now mode, but doesn’t have the respect of the league as a dark horse championship contender. The Clippers can’t hang with their Pacific Division rival Golden State Warriors and everybody knows it.

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So yes, players on the Clippers and the Mavericks haven’t been too thrilled with how their regular seasons have gone so far. Griffin was clearly being an instigator and Barea was the one that clearly lost his temper. He’ll miss a game for this takedown, but it was worth the price of admission for the folks at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.