CHICAGO — As Nazr Mohammed sat in the locker room following his ejection for shoving LeBron James to the floor early in the second quarter of an eventual 104-94 loss to the Heat, giving Miami a 2-1 series lead, the veteran Bulls center couldn’t help but regret the way the situation played out.
“Oh, definitely,” Mohammed said. “Hindsight is 20/20. … I’m sitting back here looking at the play, and I’m just disappointed because I want to be out there so bad.
“I want to help my teammates win the game and … I’m disappointed I let somebody else cause a reaction like that when I knew there was going to be so much of a microscope on the game and the physicality.”
There was expected to be plenty of focus on the physicality thanks to the way that Game 2 played out Wednesday in Miami, where the two teams combined for nine technical fouls, including ejections for Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, with the latter receiving a $25,000 fine for his verbal tirade at the officials after being sent to the showers in the fourth quarter.
But the real seeds of how this series has been viewed can be traced back to late March, when the Heat saw their 27-game winning streak snapped inside United Center by the Bulls, who beat up the defending champions, and specifically James, on their way to a 101-97 victory.
After that game, James said, “I know a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays,” and referred specifically to hard fouls by Kirk Hinrich and Gibson during that game, adding to the long-standing bad blood between these two franchises.
Things got chippy Friday even before the Mohammed-James scuffle took place, following a foul by Heat forward Chris Andersen on a Nate Robinson drive that wound up with Andersen laying on top of Robinson on the ground with 23.5 seconds to go in the first. When he came over to help Robinson up, Noah shoved Andersen unnecessarily, drawing a technical foul and starting some pushing and shoving between the teams.
But it was Mohammed’s decision to retaliate to James, shoving him after a foul, that became the dominant storyline coming out of Game 3, and one that could leave the already undermanned Bulls — who played Game 3 without Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich, three of their top seven players and all of whom possibly are out for the remainder of this series — without their backup center in Game 4 if he receives any further discipline from the league office.
“I doubt it,” Mohammed said of a possible suspension. “I don’t think so, but it’s out of my hands. It’s up to the league to decide.
“I was surprised I got kicked out for a push, so I’ll be shocked if anything else happens. They won the game. It’s over. I have no ill will towards anybody over there. … If I’m pushed again, I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing. I hope I don’t, and I’m going to try not to and keep my cool, but I can’t really say if the same thing didn’t happen again I wouldn’t do it again.”