MELO & CO. ARE BREAKING BAD
Acy suspended after his ‘fight’ with Wall
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — NBA disciplinarian Rod Thorn must be in the holiday spirit.
The NBA went light on Knicks forward Quincy Acy, who received just a onegame suspension on Friday for going after Washington’s superstar point guard John Wall on Christmas Day.
Acy will miss the opener of a threegame West Coast trip that starts Saturday in Sacramento against the Kings, who traded the bearded power forward to the Knicks in August.
Acy was ejected for a flagrant foul 2 with 5:31 remaining in the Knicks’ 10291 loss after he shoved a driving Wall in the face. Wall got up and shoved Acy, who then moved in to attack Wall. He wound up as if to punch and threw a forearm that deflected off the back of Wall’s head.
An enraged Acy was restrained by several Wizards players and needed more than 30 seconds to calm down. Wall picked up a technical on the play and Friday was fined $15,000 for “escalating the incident.’’
Thorn said he didn’t consider the fracas “a real fight.”
“Acy’s was a flagrant foul 2 that led to an altercation,” Thorn said. “That’s why he was suspended. Had it escalated into a real fight, there could have been larger penalties.”
Acy has committed several hard fouls this season as he grows into an enforcer role. Last season, the 2012 secondround pick was traded from Toronto to Sacramento in December and played 63 games for the Kings, all off the bench. He’s been a parttime starter at power forward as a Knick with coach Derek Fisher unable to come up with a firm guy at that spot since Andrea Bargnani went down after the preseason opener.
J.R. Smith also was hit with a onegame suspension for an incident with the Wizards earlier this season. Smith drove on Glen Rice Jr. and his elbow knocked into Rice’s groin during a game in November. Rice was called for a foul, but Smith got the suspension, which many feel was based on his reputation. Thorn has denied it.
Acy, who has the most grandiose beard in the NBA outside James Harden, was shipped to the Knicks along with Travis Outlaw for Jeremy Tyler and Wayne Ellington in August. Outlaw’s contract was traded after a poor preseason while Tyler never played for the Kings — and now is in China.
There will be a couple of ironies as the Knicks face the Kings. With Jose Calderon having a subpar season, it will be bittersweet to see point guard Darren Collison running the point for Sacramento.
The Knicks had agreed on a package deal for Collison at the trade deadline last February with the Clippers before Iman Shumpert sprained his knee on the eve of the deadline, canceling the trade. Collison signed with the Kings as a free agent and is averaging 15.8 points, 6.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds.