Lebron Ejected After Hitting Pistons Center Isaiah Stewart in The Face

[Herbert]

I think Shannon is wrong on this one. Lebron needs to be suspended. The easiest way to answer this one is what would have happened if Isaiah Stewart had hit Lebron in the face and he started bleeding profusely from the mouth and the eye? Everyone on the Lakers would be calling for Stewarts immediate ejection and suspension and if that's true the opposite should be true too.

Intentionality only matters to Lebron and the Lakers. The ultimate outcome of the action was that he opened up his face. It's unfortunate but I think you need to suspend him.

I think Skip is on top of this one. I think for a brief moment Lebron just kind of lost himself. I think there were a number of things that contributed to this. Lakers were down double digits to one of the worse teams in the league, they had a losing record(8-9 at the time), Lebron is coming back from injury, Lakers have chemistry/fit issues and then here is a young, 20 year old Isaiah Stewart who is roughly the same height and weight, getting physical with Lebron in the paint, making him earn every inch. I think just for a brief moment Lebron just kind of lost himself . Its hard to tell if he meant to hit him in the face you could honestly take it either way but the way he swung his arm, that was definitely frustration. And when you swing like that you gotta make sure you don't hit someone in the face, you just can't do it.

[Herbert]

I found this clip of Stewart and Blake Griffin on Twitter and I find it immensely interesting. For several reasons. For one Blake Griffin is another superstar level player that was just a freak of nature athletically in his prime. He's also around the same size and weight of Stewart and Lebron. You can make a case that Stewart is way more physical here with Blake then he is with Lebron, but Blake doesn't hit him in the face. It feels like these vets are getting frustrated when the young guy gets physical with them. They are used to being athletically superior when they go up against guys of a similar size and that's no longer the case.

For the record I'm actually a fan of Blake Griffin and Lebron but I'm trying to be objective.

[Herbert]

It was just announced Lebron is suspended 1 game and Isaiah Stewart 2 games. That seems pretty fair considering what happened. If I'm being completely honest I'm also a little disappointed their next game is against New York. Julius Randle is another physical player and he gets a lot more touches than Stewart.