Monday, April 24, 2006

Second Game Suspensions

It doesn’t matter if you throw a mouthpiece or an elbow. If you do it you’ll sit out a game in the NBA playoffs.

Miami forward Udonis Haslem will miss tonight’s playoff game against the Chicago Bulls, serving a one-game suspension for throwing his mouthpiece toward referee Joey Crawford in the series opener.

Ron Artest of the Sacramento Kings was also suspended one game without pay for hitting Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs in the head with his forearm.

The Artest suspension will hurt the Kings more than the Haslem suspension will hurt the Heat. If both teams lose to suspension the worst case scenario for Miami is a split series at 1-1 but for Sacramento it would mean going down 0-2 to the Spurs.