Memphis Grizzlies v New York Knicks
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The young Memphis Grizzlies are surging up the standings in the Western Conference and were well on their way to racking up another win over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night when all hell nearly broke loose at Madison Square Garden. After a shove, a brief scuffle, lots of yelling and pointing and a lengthy review, two players were ejected, three more were hit with technical fouls and the Knicks crowd erupted into "Sell the team!" chants. 

When play finally resumed, both teams just ran out the clock, and the Grizzlies secured a 127-106 win to improve to .500 on the season at 24-24. Ja Morant was at it again, finishing with 18 points and 10 assists, while Dillon Brooks led the way with 27 and seven different Grizzlies scored in double figures. Thanks to their fourth win in a row, the Grizzlies now have a three-game lead for the eighth spot in the West. 

But anyway, back to the near brawl, which resulted in one-game suspensions for Elfrid Payton, Jaren Jackson Jr and Marko Guduric, and heavy fines for both Marcus Morris ($35,000) and Jae Crowder ($25,000). 

Let's break down what happened. It all started when Jae Crowder snuck in to steal an inbounds pass with just under a minute to play. The Grizzlies were already up by 18 at that point, so it didn't really seem necessary, and Elfrid Payton was quite upset. So much so that as Crowder raced out to the 3-point line to launch a shot -- also unnecessary -- Payton ran up and shoved him to the ground. 

Crowder was furious and sprang up with plenty to say, but thankfully a ref was right there to jump in between the two players. He couldn't have kept them apart for long, but he did enough to delay any serious fighting, and bought time for other players, coaches and security personnel to jump into the mix. 

That prevented things from really getting too out of hand, but there was still plenty of pushing and shoving, and even more insults being hurled around. Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins even got into the mix and nearly got tangled up with Julius Randle, which wouldn't have ended well for either of them. 

Eventually, everyone got dragged away, but the scuffle got the crowd going and they started chanting "Sell the team!" That's obviously a sensitive subject around MSG -- just ask the fan who said that to James Dolan's face -- so the game operations department pumped in music to try and drown it out as the refs reviewed what had just happened.

After the review, they gave Payton a deserved Flagrant 2 foul which resulted in an automatic ejection, and also sent Crowder to the showers early via a technical foul and ejection for escalating the incident. That didn't really make too much sense considering Crowder just stood up angrily after being shoved to the ground, but there were only 48 seconds left, so whatever. He also started the whole thing by being annoying, so in the end, it was probably fair.  

Elsewhere, Marcus Morris, Damyean Dotson and Jonas Valanciunas were all hit with technical fouls for their roles in the altercation. Josh Jackson -- you better believe he's back -- knocked down three free throws with no one on the line and then the two teams just dribbled out the clock. 

After the game, the confrontation continued, as Marcus Morris, unfortunately, decided it would be a good idea to make some pretty misogynistic comments. "He's got a lot of female tendencies on the court," Morris said of Crowder. "Flopping and throwing his head back...he's soft, very woman-like." 

Shortly thereafter, Morris took to Twitter to apologize for his comments as he stated that he never intended for any woman to think he was disrespecting them with his comments following his role in the incident. 

After facing criticism from ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler on social media for his play in the final seconds of Wednesday night's game, Crowder responded by stating that he only knows to play the game one way and that is to the final buzzer. 

Thankfully, the situation in the Grizzlies locker room was much more light-hearted. They couldn't get more than a few drops of water to come out of the showers, and were left shaking their heads about not only the late-game scuffle, but the lack of water pressure at MSG. 

Late January basketball: I love this game.