Houston’s Ariza, Green suspended
Pair banned two games for L.A. locker room incident
Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green will both be suspended for Houston’s next two games, with the NBA coming down hard on both Wednesday for what the league said was their “hostile, verbal altercation” with several players in the Los Angeles Clippers’ locker room earlier this week.
No other players were disciplined, including Rockets guards James Harden and Chris Paul — both of whom left the Houston locker room with hopes of defusing the situation, the league said.
“You guys had a lot of different stories about what happened, none of them which were true,” Ariza said Wednesday in Houston, before the league announced the suspensions. “Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. The people that were there know exactly what happened and know exactly what did not happen.”
So what happened? “Nothing happened,” Ariza said. “That’s what happened. Nothing.” Later, though, he conceded “obviously, that’s not all that happened.”
The NBA said that Ariza and Green went into the Clippers’ locker room to confront a Los Angeles player. The NBA didn’t reveal specifics of what went on in the locker room, and didn’t disclose the name of the player that Ariza and Green wanted to confront.
The final minutes of the game — which was Paul’s first time facing the Clippers in Los Angeles as an opponent since the trade that sent him to Houston over the summer — were marred by some on-court feistiness, including the Clippers’ Blake Griffin appearing to exchange words with Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni.
Griffin and Ariza were also ejected with 1:03 remaining from a game that had five technical fouls, and then the postgame incident.
Ariza and Green will miss games against two of the best teams in the Western Conference — Minnesota on Thursday and the Warriors on Saturday.
The league said the investigation included more than 20 interviews with executives, staff, coaches and players from both teams, as well as arena personnel. SPURS 100, NETS 95 >> LaMarcus Aldridge scored 34 points, Patty Mills made seven 3-pointers and San Antonio responded to the latest absence of Kawhi Leonard by beating Brooklyn.
The Spurs announced earlier Wednesday that Leonard would be out indefinitely so he can continue rehabilitating from the right thigh injury that forced him to miss the start of the season.
They were fine without him Wednesday, thanks also to Pau Gasol’s 13 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
CLIPPERS 109, NUGGETS 104 >> Blake Griffin had 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Los Angeles improved to 12-3 in its last 15 games, tied with the Warriors for the NBA’s best record over that span.
THUNDER 114, LAKERS 90 >> Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points to help Oklahoma City beat Los Angeles, which was still without Lonzo Ball.
Ball sat out his second straight game with a sore left knee, and L.A. dropped to 0-8 without its rookie point guard. The injury news got worse for the Lakers. Rookie forward Kyle Kuzma left with a finger joint sprain, and forward Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left with a right Achilles tendon strain.
JAZZ 120, KINGS 105 >> Donovan Mitchell scored 23 of his 34 points in the second half as Utah won for only the fifth time in 20 games.
HAWKS 94, PELICANS 93 >> Kent Bazemore hit a jumper with 2.1 seconds remaining and Atlanta rallied from 19 points down.
HORNETS 133, WIZARDS 109 >> Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 21 points, Dwight Howard had another double-double and Charlotte used a record-setting first half to win in coach Steve Clifford’s return.
Clifford returned after missing 21 games because of headaches caused by sleep deprivation. The Hornets were 9-21 in Clifford’s absence.
GRIZZLIES 105, KNICKS 99 >> Tyreke Evans had 23 points, including three free throws in the closing seconds, along with 10 assists to lift Memphis.
HEAT 106, BUCKS 101 >> Hassan Whiteside had a season-high 27 points with 13 rebounds and six blocks to help lead Miami.