Hilarious slap but yeah they really set a precedent by not suspending rondo for the miller and heinrich incidents which were more dangerous and malicious.
I'm not a big fan of Skip as a basketball player, but I applaud that move by Rafer. House is trash talker and is known to try and provoke other players. He did bump Rafer he hit that shot and looked like tried to elbow him, but didn't make contact.
I wouldn't applaud it. Skip played right into House's game. Players talk trash to get into other players' heads and affect them mentally. Skip lost his composure and now he'll probably be sitting on the sidelines for Game 3. Skip may have thought he was standing up for himself or protecting his pride, but he got played by buying into the trash talk. I'd be frustrated too if House was raining threes all over me and the other player I was guarding was racking up a triple double, but as a player you need to use that frustration as positive motivation, not as an excuse to breakdown and affect your team's ability to win games.
Rafer likes to express his feminine side... that slap, and the man-kiss on Landry comes to mind... So was it in retaliation to something House did? A previous post said something about House elbowing him previously? Or was it just a frustration thing because he was getting torched all night long?
That's the point of the trash talk. Eddie House got in Rafer's head and got him to do something stupid during a playoff game. Rafer has a choice to play to win or to take the mental trap. No matter how much applause a player gets for taking the bait, if they keep taking the bait through the whole series, they will lose.
