The Amway Center became the latest scene of a violent confrontation in what has up until this point proven to be a pretty testy 2017-18 season in the NBA, on Tuesday night, January 16. Prior to cooler heads prevailing for the Magic to bless the hometown crowd with a 108-102 victory, Orlando guard Arron Afflalo attacked a much taller Minnesota Timberwolves forward Nemanja Bjelica and got them both ejected.
The incident happened with the score at 36-34 with 7:31 remaining in the second quarter. Jamal Crawford had just gotten through attempting to extend the T-Wolves lead with a jumper that wouldn't fall - when Afflalo and Bjelica's struggle to gain positioning for the rebound got them tangled up in the paint with one another. Then, almost immediately after Orlando came away with the ball, whistles began to blow and everyone's attention was drawn to Afflalo and Bjelica scuffling at around the foul line point. At one point Afflalo went so far as to swing at his 6-foot 10-inch opponent's face.
Afflalo and Bjelica's mix-up came only one day after headlines focused on the ugly battle that came from Chris Paul's return to Los Angeles to take on his old team. It was reported that after getting into a confrontation on the court, Paul and a few of his Houston Rockets teammates attempted to invade the Clippers locker room so that they could get some things off of their chests.
