Remember when officials confusingly upheld the call of a common foul after taking this nasty Dwight Howard elbow to video review in the latter stages of Game 5? It’s safe to say Andre Iguodala does, and now the Houston Rockets definitely will, too.
The league announced today that Howard has been suspended one game after it retroactively upgraded his foul to a Flagrant 1, raising his postseason Flagrant Foul point total to four – a number that earns an automatic suspension. Via NBA.com:
Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard has been suspended one game without pay for collecting his fourth Flagrant Foul point of the 2015 NBA postseason, it was announced today by Rod Thorn, President, Basketball Operations.
The incident, which was upgraded from a common foul to a Flagrant Foul 1 upon league office review, occurred when Howard made unnecessary contact with his forearm to the neck area of Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala with 3:35 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ 104-90 win over the Rockets on May 27 at Oracle Arena.
Though Howard already faced a suspension for receiving his seventh technical foul of the playoffs after getting entangled with Andrew Bogut earlier in the game, the league office ultimately rescinded those calls after additional review.
Either way, he only furthered his growing reputation as a “dirty” player over the past few weeks, a sentiment held by the Golden State Warriors, too.
Was told by a few Warriors the reason no one likes Dwight Howard is because he’s a cheap, dirty player. That play is why they don’t like him
— Marcus Thompson II (@ThompsonScribe) May 28, 2015
Howard will serve his suspension for the first game in which he’s available to play next season.
[Vine via g33] [NBA.com, Marcus Thompson]