Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Miami tops Indiana; Johnson suspended.
Forward misses out on Pacers; Dragic fined $10,000 for separate scrap
INDIANAPOLIS — The NBA came down swiftly, but perhaps not as harshly as the blow that triggered the penalty, suspending Miami Heat forward James Johnson from Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers because of his scrap a night earlier with Toronto Raptors forward Serge Ibaka.
With the players trading blows, Ibaka also received a one-game suspension, to be served when the Raptors host the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight at Air Canada Centre, the scene of Tuesday’s heavyweight standoff.
By rule, Johnson was not allowed to be at Bankers Life Fieldhouse when the Heat closed out the backto-back set that began with Tuesday’s 90-89 victory.
“The altercation on the court was unacceptable and should have been handled differently,” Johnson said in a statement of apology on social media. “Aggression is never the solution and violence can never be condoned in this sport or in society and I am sincerely sorry.
“I have let my Heat family down and that truly troubles me. I will take the consequences of my actions and make sure that this will not happen again.”
The game in Toronto ended with Heat guard Goran Dragic and Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan involved in a shoving match, separated by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, among others.
Dragic was fined $10,000 for his role in that scrap, with no suspension, with DeRozan receiving a higher, $25,000 fine for, according to the NBA, attempting “to forcefully shove Dragic with an open hand.” No action by Dragic was cited by the NBA for his fine.
“I was surprised. I don’t agree, but I’m moving on. It’s done,” Dragic said before Wednesday’s game, after being interviewed earlier in the day by NBA security. “What can I do?”
Johnson is in the first year of a four-year, $60 million contract, with a salary of $13,954,000 this season. That would leave the cost of a onegame suspension, based on the NBA’s formula, at $96,000. Ibaka’s lost wages are $138,000.
Spoelstra said the key moving forward with Johnson has to be controlled aggression.
“You know, by the nature of his game, he’ll probably be in situations like that where he’ll be tested in the future and he’ll be better with it the next time,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t want him to back off at all what kind of personality he brings to the game.
“He brings a physicality. He brings an edginess. He brings a toughness that we like. That’s not about whether he’s toeing the line or not. We want him to be him.”
The Dragic sanction surprised Spoelstra.
“Goran,” he said, “it seems like a stiff penalty, based on what actually happened. I was, maybe a few seconds or moments later than when it started, but that really seems a bit much, $10,000 just for a little bit of dialogue between the two.”
Johnson appeared to connect with at least one blow as he and Ibaka prepared for a Toronto inbound pass less than four minutes into the second half. The NBA determined the blows by each to be “punches,” thereby triggering the suspensions.
The amount of the lost wages can be appealed, but not the suspensions themselves.
The fines were announced three hours before the Heat’s Wednesday tipoff by Kiki VanDeWeghe, executive vice president, Basketball Operations.
His team already decimated by injuries, including a shoulder issue that had guard Tyler Johnson out, Spoelstra prepared for Wednesday’s game braced for a Johnson suspension.
With their roster shorthanded, the Heat kept guard Derrick Walton Jr. with their traveling party to Indiana. Walton met the team Tuesday in Toronto, where he was scheduled to play for the Heat’s developmentalleague affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, in the G League Showcase. Instead, the clock on his two-way contract is now down to 12 remaining allowable NBA days, before he either must be converted to a standard NBA contract, be returned to the Skyforce for the balance of the season or be released.
Tensions ran high throughout Tuesday’s game, which was decided by Wayne Ellington’s driving layup with three-tenths of a second to play.
“It certainly felt like there was something at stake from the very tip, and that’s the way it should be in this league,’’ Spoelstra said. “There was a physicality, an edge to the game.’’
Of the post-game shoving with DeRozan, Dragic said Tuesday, “Nothing special, just exchanged some words.”
Spoelstra downplayed that incident.
“With the Goran, DeRozan situation I’m not sure what happened,” Spoelstra said. “’I think that was defused by the time I got there.”