Cam Johnson Ejected for an Elbow on Austin Reaves That Surprised Even Reaves

The strangest ejection of the preseason happened in a game that did not count, on a play the fouled player did not complain about. Cam Johnson cut across the paint in Los Angeles on Friday night, his elbow found Austin Reaves’s face, and after a long look at the monitor the officials decided the contact was “unnecessary and excessive” and threw him out. Johnson shook hands all round and left. Reaves stayed, looking surprised that the call had gone that far in his favour.

What exactly did Johnson do?

He cut through the lane while his point guard posted up, and Reaves was in the path. USA Today sets the scene: third quarter of the preseason finale at Crypto.com Arena, Johnson moving across the paint while Jamal Murray was in the post, the elbow catching Reaves in the face. EssentiallySports places it midway through the quarter. The first whistle was ordinary, a common foul that was Johnson’s second of the game. Nothing in any account describes a swing, a wind-up or a reaction from Reaves asking for more. The play became an ejection only in the review, which is why the building reacted the way it did.

Why did a common foul become a Flagrant 2?

Because the review standard asks about the contact, not the intent anyone can prove. ClutchPoints reports the officials, following an extensive review, assessed a Flagrant 2 for making “unnecessary and excessive” contact with Reaves’s face. Contact to the head sits at the top of the flagrant scale, and once a crew decides an elbow to the face clears both of those words, the ejection is automatic rather than a judgment they can soften. Reaves received two free throws and the Lakers kept possession, USA Today reports. The gap in this case is between the replay the officials graded and the play the arena watched live, which USA Today describes as contact that seemed incidental. That gap has been the preseason’s running theme: Scottie Barnes drew the first push-off call under the league’s new emphasis in the opener, and Jalen Brunson picked up a flopping technical on a play where the push on him was visible. Crews are calling the strict version now, in games that do not count, so players learn where the line sits before it costs them a real one.

How did the two players react?

With the two most telling responses available. Reaves, the player the ruling protected, appeared surprised by it, USA Today and ClutchPoints both report, and ClutchPoints adds that reactions online were divided over whether the incident warranted an ejection at all. Johnson, the player it punished, offered no argument. He shook hands with his teammates and walked off the court without protest, an exit all three accounts describe the same way. A protest would have changed nothing, and Johnson treated it that way. The contrast with the preseason’s other big dust-up is sharp: Dillon Brooks and John Collins scuffled inside five minutes of their opener and argued their case for days afterwards. Johnson’s silence will read well if the league office reviews the play, because there is no reaction clip to set against the elbow.

What had Johnson done before he left?

Enough that Denver missed the production more than the minutes. Johnson had 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and 2-of-4 from three, with three rebounds, an assist and a steal in 23 minutes, ClutchPoints and EssentiallySports report, and USA Today adds a turnover. It was his first ejection of the season, ClutchPoints reports. Denver closed the game out without him: Murray finished with 21 points, Jokic with 17 points, six rebounds and eight assists, and Christian Braun added 16, while Reaves led Los Angeles with 19 and Doncic scored 15. The finale also sat inside a preseason that has kept producing odd injury and incident stories, from Joel Embiid falling into Jaylen Brown in a first-quarter scare to this one. Denver’s 121-106 win, reported by EssentiallySports, settled the exhibition record at 3-2 and settled nothing about the call.

Does the ejection follow Johnson into the regular season?

Only if the league office says so, and it had not as of Saturday. An ejection ends the night, nothing more, unless the league’s own review of a Flagrant 2 adds a fine or a suspension on top. No such outcome has been reported, and Johnson walked off with the kind of exit that gives a review little extra to work with. What the play does carry forward is the standard itself. If an elbow that looked incidental, on a cut through the lane, is a Flagrant 2 in October, cutters and screeners across the league now know the same contact can end their night in a game that matters.

What happens next?

Denver opens the regular season against the Oklahoma City Thunder, ClutchPoints reports, and the first checkpoint is simple: whether the league office announces anything on the play before that game. Johnson’s preseason line closed at 23 minutes and an early shower. The officials’ line closed with a definition, unnecessary and excessive, applied to a play the man on the receiving end did not think deserved it. The regular season will test which of those two readings the league actually meant.