Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard will miss the team's Tuesday night game against the Miami Heat after the NBA hit him with a one-game suspension for "striking the arm of a game official" during the fourth quarter of Houston's 123-122 loss to the Washington Wizards on Jan. 30.
With 8:08 remaining in the fourth quarter of the loss, Howard got tangled up with Wizards big man Nene under the basket. Nene got into Howard's face after the tangle, resulting in Howard shoving Nene, and referees stepping in to separate the two. During that separation, referee Mitchell Ervin put his left hand on Howard; the Rockets center swiped it off and began to walk away. Both Howard and Nene received technical fouls on the play, and since it was the second T for both, they were both ejected. It marked the second straight game in which Howard had been ejected, after getting the gate early during Friday's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Crew chief John Goble explained the double-techs after the game:
 | @SpearsNBAYahoo | |
Referee chief John Goble talks about ruling on technical fouls on Houston's Dwight Howard and Washington's Nene. pic.twitter.com/KuFSS9I07B
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Howard received his first technical of the evening for putting his hands on the back of Jared Dudley's neck — "in what appeared to be a joking manner," according to The Associated Press — to demonstrate what happened during the flagrant foul the Wizards forward committed on Dwight during the second quarter. That technical has been rescinded, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle ... meaning Howard wouldn't have been on two techs, which might have changed the way things unfolded just a bit.
After the game, Rockets interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff blasted the officials for both the way they approached Howard against Washington and in general, according to ESPN.com's Calvin Watkins:
"It's not fair the way the referees ref Dwight," Bickerstaff said. "You can go back and look at clip after clip after clip. They initiate contact with him, they grab him, they hold him. Dwight gets punished more than anybody in the league. The referees need to be held accountable. They want to keep the game clean. The referees need to do their job from the beginning of the night. Over and over again, the same situation happens. At some point in time, you want to protect the league's players on a night in and night out basis.
"This crew is no exception. They didn't protect Dwight. They allowed people to hit him. They allowed people to grab his neck, grab his arms and hold his shoulders. He's going to get hurt, plain and simple. The reason why he has the back problems and knee problems is because people jump on his back and grab on his shoulders.
"These referees need to be held accountable for letting people attack Dwight and be that physical with him. And dirty -- it's not physical. If they let Dwight be physical and be clean, that's one thing. They're not clean with the way they play. We don't mind being physical. He's not afraid of that. But cheap is one thing -- grabbing somebody's shoulders, grabbing somebody's arms -- that's not clean basketball. And it's not just tonight, but tonight is an example of it."
Bickerstaff was fined $10,000 on Tuesday for his comments, which means his Saturday night outburst was expensive, but not nearly as expensive as Dwight's:
 | @BobbyMarks42 | |
Howard will be fined $203k for his 1g suspension. HOU will save roughly $150k in luxury taxes. @Jonathan_Feigen with the suspension.
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... which, oddly enough, winds up helping Houston's bottom line:
| @BobbyMarks42 | |
Rockets have saved $725k in tax penalties with the Lawson and Howard suspensions this year.
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You'd imagine, though, that Houston owner Leslie Alexander would gladly pay the full freight if it meant having his full roster available and being able to get, and keep, the Rockets on a run after a herky-jerky first half of the season that sees them sitting at 25-25 and in seventh place in the Western Conference.
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