Austin Rivers and Mo Bamba were among five players ejected following a fight where both players threw punches.
Jaden McDaniels, Taurean Prince and Jalen Suggs were also ejected.
Bamba appeared to be talking trash to Rivers on multiple trips down the floor.
“This isn’t like a cool moment for me,” Rivers said after the game. “I feel embarrassed. I’m the oldest on the team. I consider myself the leader of the team, or one of the leaders of the team. It was a weird game, and I don’t think that helped at all. If anything right now, I’m just [ticked off] that we lost, and that I had [something] to do with that. It doesn’t make me feel good.”
“You obviously want to have your teammate’s back and at the same time, you’ve got to be a professional,” said Moritz Wagner.
Rivers approached Bamba about his comments.
“I’m not going to snitch on the dude or whatever, but I just didn’t like the way he was talking to me,” said Rivers. “For no reason, too. I don’t even know that dude. I don’t know anything about him. Obviously, I just know he’s a player for the Magic. And he proceeded to talk, so that next possession, when I went down there, I just said, pretty much, ‘Just keep it respectful, bro.'”
Markelle Fultz, when asked what Bamba said to Rivers, told reporters it was “normal trash, nothing disrespectful or crazy.”
