Montrezl Harrell's frustration has spilled over, with the Adelaide 36ers' excitement machine ejected early in the fourth quarter of his side's 113-93 NBL loss to Melbourne United.
United were already in control leading 85-73 early in the fourth quarter when everything exploded at John Cain Arena after Harrell was called for an offensive foul after barrelling through United centre Rob Loe.
After Harrell pushed Loe, United guard Shea Ili took exception and matters threatened to get out of hand.
Just as things were calming down, Harrell and teammate Kendric Davis got involved in an ugly spat with Melbourne fans sitting courtside.
When it was all settled, Harrell and Ili were ejected.
Adelaide coach Mike Wells was relatively happy with how the issue was handled, but not when fans got physical with his club's general manager Matt Weston.
"By the time I got there, the fans were screaming at our players and being really, really aggressive towards them," he said.
"They can pay their money, they can cheer and yell at us, but as soon as they start putting their hands on people it's a different game. From what I saw, they put hands on our GM."
United coach Dean Vickerman was happy with his team's response.
"The play started with us taking a charge and I thought we just did a good job of getting in front of people and putting our body on the line for the team," he said.
"Any time there's punches thrown and things like that, the league's going to deal with it the right way and I thought we supported each other through that period."
The game then continued without incident as United collected the 20-point home victory even after Adelaide briefly got back to within five points.
The Sixers performed a good job of drawing 26 fouls on United to go 29-of-37 at the foul line, with Harrell ending up with 6-of-12 and Davis 17-of-18.
Outside of that, United were in control most of the way after a 13-0 run in the opening minutes, before leading by seven at quarter-time and 13 at the half, with Chris Goulding hitting threes to close both periods.
The lead blew out to 17 in the third quarter and eventually Melbourne won by 20 to return to top spot with a 10-4 win-loss record.
Ian Clark hit 4-of-7 from long-range for 20 points, with Flynn Cameron making a career-best 7-of-11 for 21 points to lead the scoring.
Goulding scored 19, Matthew Dellavedova contributed 15 points and seven assists, and Rob Loe 13 points and seven rebounds.
The 36ers continue to struggle on the road, with just one win from five games. They are now conceding an average of 105.8 points in those games to be 6-5 heading into the break.
Davis led the way for the 36ers with 30 points and 11 assists.
Harrell had 20 points before his ejection, with DJ Vasiljevic adding 17 points.
