Heat big man Thomas Bryant and Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado have been suspended three games apiece for leaving the bench area and fighting during an on-court altercation on Friday in New Orleans, the NBA announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
Additionally, Heat forward Jimmy Butler and Pelicans forward Naji Marshall will face one-game suspensions for instigating the incident, while Heat forward Nikola Jovic will be suspended for one game for leaving Miami’s bench area and entering the fracas, per the league.
The incident began when Heat forward/center Kevin Love wrapped up Zion Williamson as the Pelicans star attempted a layup early in the fourth quarter (Twitter video link). Marshall objected to the play and rushed to confront Love, resulting in Marshall and Butler getting into a shoving match, with players and coaches from both teams looking to intercede.
The altercation escalated briefly, then seemed to be cooling down before Bryant and Alvarado exchanged heated words and threw punches in front of the scorer’s table (Twitter video link). Butler, Bryant, Marshall, and Alvarado were all ejected from the game, which Miami eventually won.
The Pelicans will host the Bulls on Sunday, so Marshall will serve his one-game suspension tonight, while Alvardo will begin serving his three-game ban. Alvarado will miss games in New York on Tuesday and Indiana on Wednesday as well.
With Dyson Daniels (left knee) and CJ McCollum (left ankle) also unavailable for the Pelicans on Sunday and Williamson (left foot) and Brandon Ingram (non-COVID illness) considered questionable, the team recalled a handful of players – Jalen Crutcher, E.J. Liddell, Malcolm Hill, and Dereon Seabron – from the G League on Saturday for depth purposes.
The Heat will be in action on Monday in Sacramento, so Bryant, Butler, and Jovic will miss that game, with Bryant also sitting out the team’s contests in Portland on Tuesday and Denver on Thursday.
The three-game suspensions will cost Bryant $52,308 (of his $2,528,233 salary) and Alvarado $37,988 (of $1,836,096), per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter links).
Because he’s on a maximum-salary contract, Butler will forfeit by far the biggest total ($259,968) of any of the five affected players, despite being suspended for just a single game. Jovic will lose $13,517, while Marshall will lose $11,096.
Very surprised Love wasn’t punished
For? Lol
Lol what?
Not really sure how Jimmy gets suspended, but ok. I guess people can just put their hands around your throat. Jovic and Bryant definitely left the bench, so that makes sense, but I don’t get the extra games for Bryant for having punches thrown at him, then taking 2 steps forward and deciding not to throw a retaliation punch last moment
Butler escalated the entire situation by getting chippy with Marshall, AND he was pursuing Marshall the whole time.
Bryant swung back which is clearly shown in the 2nd video. Punches are punches.
Shouldn’t have been nose-to-nose with a player one foot shorter and 100 pounds less than him in the first place, what do you think the smaller guy is gonna do in that situation?
Marshall ran over and shoved Kevin Love. Jimmy went after Marshall after he had his hands around his throat, while Marshall backed away and looked for teammates to get in between them.
Alvarado goes up to Bryant, then after he gets side stepped, gets mad and comes around and swings. Bryant’s retaliation “punch” is a quarter extended arm he pulled back lol, but if you want to classify that as a punch, I guess that can be considered fair, even though it’s really dumb
There is a reason why Jimmy, and the rest of the Heat were laughing as the ejection was announced.
Well now Jimmy can laugh two hundred and sixty thousand more times
Butler put HIS hand on Naji’s throat FIRST lol if it wasnt for him escalating the situation none of this would have even happened
That was a Zion flop. Love gave a good foul. No shots here. Zion threw himself to the floor. It’s clear on the replay. Pelican players just misjudged imo. They took it too far. Then it just got out hand. Players leaving bench is ridiculous. There are enough coaches and refs to stop the madness. More players on court only makes things worse.
All those suspensions for much ado about nothing …….. Bill Laimbeer sure got his money’s worth back in the day.
Luke, we are seeing something very rare. I think Bobby got the amount of Jovic’s one game suspension wrong. I have 13,517… but that’s not very important. I was surprised, as I didn’t know that the rule had changed from 1/145 to 1/174 for one-game suspensions in the new CBA.
Yeah, you’re right — think it should be $13,517.
Perhaps at Miami’s home arena, they can build a wrestling ring just to the side of the court… The padded floor might help save a few injuries