The playoffs are right around the corner, but just in case you hadn't realized, the Mavericks and the Lakers made it clear as a hard foul by Jason Terry lead to a scrum on the baseline leading to the four ejections. Terry, clearly frustrated from a very rough shooting night, fouled Steve Blake on a drive to the basket, then shoved him for good measure at the end. Blake immediately popped back up as he and Terry exchanged heated words. Several players and officials moved in to break it up, including Haywood and Barnes, although neither bench fully cleared. After Barnes gave a shove to an official, Dallas assistant coach Terry Stotts tried to restraint him, but was shoved into the bench when Barnes attempt to break loose. It appeared Tyson Chandler, who had stayed on the sidelines up to this point, was ready to throw punches after witnesses this if he had not been held back by Brian Cardinal. After several minutes of discussion, those four players were ejected. Haywood appeared to simply be trying to keep the peace, and may have just been a victim of circumstance. Theo Ratliff was selected by the Mavericks to shoot the two free throws from Terry's flagrant 2 since Blake was ejected and missed them both.
UPDATE I: A few minutes later, a fan behind the Dallas bench was quickly escorted out of the stadium by a pack of red coated security members.
UPDATE II: A fifth ejection went down as Shannon Brown gave Brian Cardinal a bit of a push and some choice words after a (somewhat) hard foul on Pau Gasol. He was attempting to protect his star from what he perceived as retaliation.
UPDATE III: Videos of the brawl and the fan being ejected are right after the jump. Big shout out to Blazersedgeben for the quick uploading of these.
UPDATE IV: Rumors circulating on twitter that the fan rushing the Mavericks bench was in fact a female streaker, wearing just a bra, and perhaps no pants.
Apparently, that was a female streaker that was running at the Mavs' bench.
Earl K. Sneed
EKS_MavsNBA