INDIANAPOLIS — If the Heat are going to advance to the NBA Finals tonight against the Pacers, they’ll have to do it without The Birdman.
The NBA announced yesterday it has suspended Chris Andersen, Miami’s backup center, for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. The ban is 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 the flagrant-one foul Andersen received for slamming Hansbrough to the floor was upgraded to a flagrant-two, resulting in an automatic one-game suspension.
It was surprising 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 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, then by a Heat security person, who eventually dragged Andersen back to the Miami bench. Andersen wound up staying in the game, getting that flagrant-one, with both players picking up a technical foul. It was announced yesterday Hansbrough’s technical foul was rescinded.
If there were any doubt 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 who can spell Chris Bosh, as well as being able to finish lobs from LeBron James and Miami’s other ball-handlers at the rim.
Given the trouble Miami has already had in the 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 Udonis Haslem — who went 8-for-9 and scored 16 points, including 10 in the pivotal third quarter, in Miami’s Game 5 win — 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.