Flagrant elbow costs Smits Game 3, $10,000 ESPN.com news services
INDIANAPOLIS -- Rik Smits' errant elbow cost him a one-game
suspension and perhaps cost the Indiana Pacers a chance for their
first NBA championship.
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The NBA suspended the 7-foot-4 center on Friday for Game 3 of
the Pacers' best-of-five Eastern Conference series against
Milwaukee. The Bucks routed the Pacers 104-91 and tied the series
at one game apiece Thursday night, when Smits was ejected for
throwing an elbow at Ervin Johnson.
"I'm disappointed by it, but what are you going to do?," Smits
said after Friday's practice. "I'm just going to try to come back
the next game and play my butt off. I wanted to make an aggressive
play, but the elbow got caught a little too high."
Johnson was struck in the head by Smits' elbow, although
Thursday night he said it just grazed him. Smits gave the league
his side of the incident on Friday, then found out about the
suspension and a $10,000 fine just before practice.
"I intended to make an aggressive box-out on the play. There
was no intention to elbow him in the face. That's what it came down
to," Smits said. "There wasn't an intent to hurt.
"But they didn't call an elbowing foul. In the game, when I
asked the referee why I was being thrown out, he said I threw a
punch, which I never did. It takes a lot to get that out of me, and
it was building up over the course of the last game and this
game."
Because of the suspension, Smits will watch Saturday night's
game from his hotel room.
"It'll be frustrating. It was frustrating last night, but I'll
definitely watch it," he said.
Smits has been considering retiring after this season. Larry
Bird already has said he will step down as coach, and five other
players will be free agents.
"I just want us to do our best," Bird said. "It's not for me.
It's for the players. I took this job because I thought they had a
great opportunity to go to the finals, and I always say, even when
I played, that if you get in the finals anything can happen. That's
all I want to see these guys do.
"We've had a couple opportunities that didn't come through, so
this is really my last shot," Bird said.
Reggie Miller said he was surprised by Smits' suspension,
considering the light blow to Johnson.
"I've seen a lot worse in playoff basketball, especially when
we played the Knicks in a few series," Miller said. "There was a
lot more blood and gore and gouges but no suspensions. But this is
the cleaner, friendlier NBA. It's all about examples.
"We roll with the punches," he said.
"We played a few games without Rik and we've been very
successful, so other guys step up. There's no excuses just because
he's out. He's a big part, yes, but life goes on. He threw an
elbow, he got penalized for it, we move on."
Smits missed three games because of a sore back during the
regular season and the Pacers won two of them, including 92-90 at
Milwaukee.
"It's never easy without Rik. It's always a struggle," Bird
said. "Hopefully we'll get to Milwaukee and get focused again and
play some good basketball.
"Dale (Davis) and Austin (Croshere) both can score down low.
Zan Tabak showed he can score around the basket. We'll probably
post Sam (Perkins) up a little bit more," Bird said. "It's just
that Rik is such a big influence. He disrupts the defense when he
gets it going. They have to double-team and it gets our shooters
open, so we'll miss that."
Mark Jackson said he didn't see the confrontation between Smits
and Johnson, so he wouldn't comment on the suspension. However, he
said the loss of Smits isn't necessarily fatal.
"I think we become probably more of a force as far as on the
glass, and we match up better," Jackson said. "We're not going to
say we're going to lose because we don't have him. We're a team
that has had guys step up all year long, and this is no
different."
Croshere, who could move from his backup spot at power forward
to center, said the Pacers still have concerns from Thursday's
104-91 loss.
"We'd like to establish a post presence, draw some fouls early,
get things happening," Croshere said. "Obviously, not having Rik
there is going to hurt that." |