Durant Ejected in Warriors Opening NBA Playoff Win

Kevin Durant with Team USA
USA's Kevin Durant celebrates win at the Basketball Final between USA and Serbia during the Rio Olympics 2016. Photo by Dave Shopland/BPI/REX/Shutterstock (5837940n)

The top-seeded Golden State Warriors got off to a good start in their defense of the NBA title.

The back-to-back champions of the league took a 121-104 win over the Los Angeles Clippers in the opening game of their first-round matchup against the West’s #8 seed.

While Golden State won comfortably in the series opener at Oracle Arena, things got testy late after Warriors forward Kevin Durant and Clippers guard Patrick Beverly were ejected in the 4th quarter.

After a hard foul on Durant, the Warriors forward reacted by shoving Beverly. The referee decided to take control of the situation by dismissing both players from the game.

Durant scored 23 points before his ejection.

Steph Curry led the high-octane Golden State offense with a masterful 38 point performance. He hit 8 of 12 three-point attempts and also collected 15 rebounds and 7 assists.

Despite starting on the bench, the top performer of the day for the underdog Clippers was Montrezl Harrell. The bench forward scored 25 points and collected 9 rebounds.

The Warriors are heavy favorites to advance past Los Angeles and into the next round, where they would face the winner of the series between the Rockets and Jazz.