The NBA won’t suspend Kevin Love for leaving the bench area during an altercation at the end of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, tweets Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports.
A source tells Mannix that NBA officials determined that Love stepped onto the court to protest a foul call against Tristan Thompson and returned to the bench when physical confrontations began (Twitter link).
The incident was precipitated when Thompson took exception to a jumper by Shaun Livingston to beat the shot clock in the final seconds of Thursday’s overtime. Thompson tried to block the shot and elbowed Livingston in the chest. That led to an altercation that resulted in Thompson pushing the ball in Draymond Green‘s face after being ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul. Green was restrained by teammates before he could retaliate.
League officials are still reviewing Thompson’s actions and will announce later today if he will be suspended for Game 2, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link).
Do Lebron a favor – suspend Love and Smith.
If the call had mattered, it would’ve gone down as the worst call in sports history. Since when is it flagrant 2 for hitting a guy’s elbow while contesting a shot?
Well it only is when you play against Golden State, they always get all the calls & favor from the refs. I truly don’t understand why, they are pretty good without it I am sure they would win a few games, so they don’t really need the help, just to ensure they always win (but for superman Lebron, that can beat them every now & then)