INDIANAPOLIS – If the Heat are going to advance to the NBA Finals on Saturday night against the Pacers, they’ll have to do it without The Birdman.
The NBA announced Friday night that it had suspended Chris Andersen, Miami’s backup center, for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals because of his altercation with Tyler Hansbrough in the second quarter of the Heat’s 90-79 win over the Pacers in Game 5 Thursday night in Miami. The league said that Andersen’s flagrant-one foul that he received for slamming Hansbrough to the floor was upgraded to a flagrant-two, resulting in an automatic one-game suspension.
It was surprising in the moment that the officials working Game 5 opted not to immediately toss Andersen from the game after he all but lost his mind with 9:20 remaining in the second quarter. As the Pacers took the ball upcourt following a missed layup by Heat guard Norris Cole, Andersen came up behind Hansbrough and slammed into him, sending the Pacers forward falling to the ground.
Andersen then stopped and started jawing at Hansbrough as he got back to his feet, leading to the two of them coming together and bumping chests before Andersen gave Hansbrough a two-handed shove.
He then had to be restrained first by referee Marc Davis, and then a Heat security person, eventually dragged Andersen back to the Heat bench. But Andersen wound up staying in the game, getting that flagrant-one with both players picking up a technical foul. It was announced Friday that Hansbrough’s technical foul from that play was rescinded, as well.
If there was any doubt that Andersen would be suspended for the incident, it quickly dissipated when NBA Commissioner David Stern commented on the matter in a taped interview with NBC Sports Radio.
“I do think he should have been ejected,” Stern said. “I looked at the replays and, it seems to me, there was no immediate push or shove of him … he just hauled off and knocked down Tyler Hansbrough.
“I don’t know what he was doing. And then he pushed him. And then [Andersen] did not go gracefully to the bench.”
After signing with the Heat in the middle of the season, Andersen has become a vital piece of the team’s rotation, providing them with an active, athletic big man that can spell Chris Bosh as the center of Miami’s active defensive schemes, as well as being able to finish lobs from LeBron James and Miami’s other ball-handlers as the rim.
Given the trouble that Miami has already had in this series dealing with Indiana’s imposing frontline of David West and Roy Hibbert, being without Andersen only makes the job of slowing them down that much more difficult.
With Andersen out, it’s likely that Udonis Haslem – who went 8-for-9 and scored 16 points in Miami’s Game 5 win, including 10 points during the pivotal third quarter – will get even more minutes. It also could mean little-used reserve Joel Anthony could see more time, as Bosh is already bothered by a sprained right ankle.
tbontemps@nypost.com