Nick Young punches two Suns

Last night, the kettle known as Swaggy P boiled over as Nick Young punched two of the Suns and got ejected in the first half of the Lakers-Suns game. The Lakers went on to lose 121-114.

After watching this clip like the Zapruder film, I can see why Young was overcome with emotion and retaliated. He got clobbered. However- clobbering happens all the time. It's part of basketball. It doesn't mean that when it happens, it has to turn into Clobberin' Time.

Immediately following Young swinging at both Alex Len and Goran Dragic, he was ejected. After the review, the Alex Len was given a Flagrent 2 and he also was ejected. If Young had kept his cool, Len still would have been kicked out of the game and therein lies the problem. The Swaggy P ejection was avoidable.

After the game, Young spoke with the media.

"What I'm mad about is it was 1-on-5, I felt like," Young said. "If somebody [from the Lakers] would have got in the middle, everything wouldn't have escalated that much."

The Lakers, who only had nine players available on Wednesday night, understandably had to take the other side of the argument.

"You don't fight in this league," D'Antoni said. "It wouldn't help us to lose two or three more guys. So, I hate that Nick feels that way, but I'm sure he's just in the moment, talking."

It's a less than optimal situation in LA right now. Kobe is hurt, the team is in free fall, and one of the proudest franchises in sports is headed for the lottery. Not great.

But you know what is worse? When one of your go-to-guys gets ejected. Or when said ejected go-to-guy takes his jersey off as he leaves the arena.

After the game, Alex Len spoke to the media about the situation.

"I went up for the ball," Len said. "I didn't mean to hit him in the face. Hard foul. I wanted to block him but I was a little late so I was about to foul him. But I didn't mean to hit him in the face. I knew he was going to do that (retaliate) because I knocked him down on the floor. He had to get back. I respect that."

At least Len and Young are on the same page. So there's that.

Follow Padraic O'Connor on Twitter @padraic_oconnor

Photo Source: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Source: Dave McMenamin; ESPN