Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra came to guard Goran Dragic's defense on Friday, telling reporters that Dragic's ejection in the fourth quarter of Miami's 127-100 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers was "shameful" and "disgraceful." During the third quarter, Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson shoved Dragic to the ground and the two of them had to be separated.

You can watch the scuffle in the video player above. Here's Spoelstra, via ESPN's Baxter Holmes:

"That's really shameful, disgraceful that Goran Dragic got thrown out of that game," Spoelstra said. "It's an elbow to the face, somebody that wants to fight, knocks him down on the ground, and it's just a bail-out, shameful, disgraceful ejection.

"There's no way he should be thrown out of that situation for just taking an elbow to the face, getting up, not even necessarily defending himself, just getting up. But at that point, it's an eight-point game, and we pretty much just let it go from there.

"I don't know if it would have made a difference, but he's our best player, and having him go down with us down the stretch, it's probably a possession game."

When asked if he expects to receive an explanation from the officials, Spoelstra said, "Who knows? Who cares? We'll probably have a report tomorrow. Whatever. I mean, you can look at it over and over and over. He's just taking a two-handed shove, an elbow to the chin, and he gets ejected for that. None of us get it. None of us understand it, and I could care less about hearing any kind of explanation about it tomorrow."

Erik Spoelstra and Goran Dragic after Jordan Clarkson incident
Erik Spoelstra has Goran Dragic's back. USATSI

In fairness to Clarkson, he was reacting to a bump from Dragic. Clarkson's reaction, though, was not on the same level as the bump. He made contact with Dragic's neck, and in just about any context, that's an ejection. Also in just about any context, the player who took the hit is going to be upset.

Spoelstra's gripe, then, is understandable. Dragic went after Clarkson when he got back up, but anybody would have done that. Upon looking at the replay, the referees could have chosen to eject Clarkson and keep Dragic in the game. The Heat were only trailing by eight points at the time, but it was completely one-sided after that.