Orlando Sentinel beat writer George Diaz says
Howard has been suspended for tomorrow night's game for elbowing Sam Dalembert in the head. No confirmation anywhere else, yet.
UPDATE:
It's confirmed.
On his
personal blog today, Howard addressed a possible suspension. Here's the money quote:
Philly big man Reggie Evans even came up to me at the end of the game and said he was going to ask his G.M. to not go to the league about trying to get me suspended. I appreciate that from Reggie. Hopefully it will all work out for the best and I'll be out there ballin' for Game 6 on Thursday in Philly.
I imagine that was a funny conversation between Reggie and Ed Stefanski.
Many thanks to Josh from the comments for providing the link.
Here's a
blog post from the Orlando Sentinel confirming. No one else is reporting yet.
That is class and smart of Reggie. No harm and it looks great!
Espn just confirmed suspension.
It was pretty clear he had to be suspended.
Offical: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/news/story?id=4112203
Well at least we'll be spared the annoying complaints that would've ensued about how the league, ESPN, sports media, and the whole world in general hate the Sixers.
true.
signed, one of the guys who would've been complaining.
I think the league fixed game 5 personally. They realized that Howard would have to be suspended and they wanted to make sure the decider had Howard, which should be game 7.
So I think the league already fucked the Sixers. Lots of questionable calls in game 5 as well.
forgot the /sarcasm
So now that Howard is suspended...what do we think of game 6...I can't wait to wat...oh yeah NBA tv...seriosly...3 games on NBA TV for one series? ...we get the hint
Magic Starting lineup: Rafer, Pietrus, Rashard, Turk and Gortat/bench: anthony Johnson, Battie and Reddick
On paper...we should grab a lot of rebounds, drive to the paint....and foul out at least a few of their bigs. What is scary is that this is the game where the Magic will shoot 40 thee pointers...we just have to let them make the ones they do and capitalize on their misses.
I could see Dalembert having a monster 14 pts, 17 boards game...and we will be able to see Maurice!!!!...
If anything this game could get the confidence back for Lou and Thad
Dalembert today on what would've happened if he had elbowed Howard like that: "I'd probably be on a banana boat going back home to Haiti."
Quote of the year.
one-game situations without a star can be dangerous for the other team (for example, game 6 1981 nba finals with kareem's migraine)
I think they are less dangerous without Howard. Just my thoughts.
Shall we compare the rosters of the 81 lakers minus kareem versus the 2009 magic without howard (and nelson and courtney)
The 81 lakers minus kareem could probably beat all 16 teams in the playoffs this year.
Still no odds on the game. They must be really thrown through a loop here.
Were there odds before the announcement?
Dalembert on what led Howard to elbow him: "He probably just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I can't imagine what would have happened (if I hadn't turned my head). Maybe I wouldn't be able to keep my composure like I did."
The funny thing is, if he hadn't kept his composure, they both would've been tossed and maybe gone for the rest of the series. If that escalates into a real fight, we trade Sammy for Howard for games, plural.
Should've been a fight then. Daly would be able to rest his shoulder.
Can I just say seeing SVG in the highlights today trying to ignore, minimize, dismiss the situation after the game really made me hate him almost as much as I hate his brother. Can you imagine the hysterics if the situation was reversed and reggie evans did that and didn't get ejected? Van Gundy would have popped a blood vessel right there ryelling at the refs - turning red similarly to that violet girl in the REAL willy wonka movie.
Then two techs and then probably two hours and 50K in fines afterwards about how his precious player was pushed around.
God what a whiny bitch - Dwight Howard will never achieve all he can on or off the court with this guy directing his future.
Guy's a raving lunatic. No class whatsoever.
And his brother is a better coach.
This game is still scary. However, all we need to do defensively is EXACTLY what we've been doing (single coverage vs the C) and we should be fine.
Offensively we can't settle for jumpers. On paper, this strategy is so simple it's almost too easy. And that's why I'm nervous.
Want to see some real BS:
Stu Jackson, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, said Howard would have been ejected from the game if any of the referees saw him make contact with his target. Jackson said the contact was clear cut on replay.
"They saw the elbow thrown but they couldn't determine whether or not the elbow actually made contact with Dalembert," Jackson said. "This was an elbow that was thrown that made contact above the shoulders and by rule there's an automatic suspension."
Look at the replay, the ref was looking right at it as it happened with no one to obstruct his view. And can't they use replay to look at situations such as these this year? If that ref thought that warranted an immediate whistle for a tech, shouldn't he have sought out replay to indeed determine if contact was made or not, if what Stu says above is true?
They just reversed a call against Brad Miller last weekend by going to replay to look at a tangle up between him and Glen Davis where he was ejected initially but changed to a flagrant foul.