NBA

Chris Webber of the Washington Bullets and Luc Longley of the Chicago Bulls were suspended for their teams’ regular-season openers and fined $7,500 each for trading punches in an exhibition game Tuesday night in Chicago. Washington rookie Rasheed Wallace threw the ball at Longley and was fined $5,000.

Longley’s teammate, Michael Jordan, said veteran officials might have been able to stop the altercation. The NBA’s 54 referees have been locked out since Oct. 1. The league has hired replacements, mostly from the CBA.

“The regular NBA officials are more experienced seeing regular-season NBA basketball and they know what to look for to control the game,” Jordan said Thursday. “The young guys, I think they have a little bit of nervousness and don’t seem to have the same type of control as the regular guys.”

In a separate action, Oliver Miller of Toronto was suspended for one game and fined $5,000 for leaving the bench and confronting Philadelphia’s Shawn Bradley during an exhibition Oct. 14 at Halifax, Canada. Miller will miss the Raptors’ first game ever, at home against New Jersey on Nov. 3.