Good points. My response would have been what you pointed out--there is a game tomorrow and the league needs to give the team notice if it intends to suspend him. They will leak that there is no further discipline but there isn't much urgency involved if they've already decided not to upgrade it. I don't think they could still be reviewing the video unless they have a severely inefficient review process. Add to this the fact that the Warriors, including Bogut, have come out publicly saying that it shouldn't be a Flagrant 2. I think the ruling will stand.
Even his opinion was absolutely nothing. Basically said you can find examples where a play like this is a Flag 1 or a Flag 2. So yeah, typical SportsCenter reporting.
This is what gives me some hope. No one's pulling a hissy fit from the Golden State side, which is in great contrast to what LeBron did after the Harden kick. Hopefully that leads to a better result.
Lowe & Russillo ZL: ... Is Dwight gonna get suspended for game five? Should and will it happen? RR: No. I get why it should be a two in reference to what it was with Horford. I still think Horford was dragging Dellavedova down. ... The interesting conversation with the Howard elbow is Van Gundy saying he wants every punishment to be the same. That's impossible. As much as Howard was going to elbow him, the Bogut grab plays into it. It wasn't an elbow out of nowhere. ZL: Bogut is always doing stuff like that. Bogut shoved him blatantly. It should have been a foul on Bogut. RR: Right. I would look at that and say "There was a reason." What Dwight did was not good but to upgrade it, if he elbowed in the face for no reason on a box out at the FT line, lets throw a two on him. The Horford thing was worse. Not all elbows and incidents are created equal. ZL: The comparison is Smith on Crowder. The difference is Smith hammered him. Dwight kinda at the very end, it looked bad when it happened, opened up his hand and softened the impact in the way that the refs maybe saw on replay and the view of it today. It should have been a flagrant two. I get your point about Bogut. He's instigating everything. RR: Watch Bogut underneath the rim. It's unbelievable what that guy does. ZL: He's the human arm-bar. You have to know though. You have to know who you're playing and control your emotions. You can't do that if you're Dwight. I don't want Dwight suspended game five. I thought he should have been tossed in real time. Dwight was worse than Horford. If I think he should get tossed, I guess I have to think he should be suspended which I'm not comfortable with. RR: Dwight at times, which he brought upon himself, there's still a part of Dwight where I feel like he's a miserable player. I feel like he's always miserable. That play against Bogut, how do you get yourself in that situation when you're one screw up away? You have to be aware of you're situation. ZL: You're take on Horford's offense being worse? I've watched it 20 times. He meant to hit Dellavedova but it was also a combo of hitting him and breaking his fall. I'm not sure he meant to hit him in the head. On the flip side, everyone wants to brand Dellavedova as a dirty player. I watch those plays, I honestly don't know. The Korver one, he didn't try to hurt him. RR: I don't get that one. ZL: He dove for a loose ball. Dangerous play but instinctual. Horford was pulling him down. I don't know if Dellavedova is dirty. Olynyk could have stopped. He kept pulling. I don't know if he's dirty or the way he's wired. I don't know about Horford or Dellavedova's intent. The flagrant two was a bad call but I don't know. You slow these things down and you trick yourself into thinking this still photo shows me indisputable proof of something and watch in real time, that's a jumble of limbs. Horford worse? RR: Yeah, I thought he was loading up. Horford realized "What am I doing?" I know that the way it looks where Dwight is clearly turning around hoping to hit Bogut in the face with his elbow & hand, Horford was "I'm going to crumple this guy." Was there 7% more malicious intent with Horford than Dwight? I don't know but it seemed he was trying to deliver a knockout blow to Dellavedova once he was underneath him. ZL: I might be...I have so much respect for Horford that it may be coloring my interpretation. Al is awesome. Maybe he was being more malicious.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rod Thorn has confirmed Dwight Howard's foul at 8:07 of 3rd quarter last night as a flagrant foul one. <a href="http://t.co/lDJQCWhaQb">pic.twitter.com/lDJQCWhaQb</a></p>— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAOfficial/status/603338878842445824">May 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dwight Howard will not be suspended, league announces.</p>— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/603338688941129731">May 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Spoke to Rod Thorn about decision not to suspend Howard. He felt contact was unnecessary but not excessive. Didn’t meet standard for upgrade</p>— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/603338715285565440">May 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dwight Howard not suspended for Game 5, league announces.</p>— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/603338980629839872">May 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The NBA will take its revenge and Dwight will have 2 fouls in 6 minutes... We need Dwight just to be smarter...
