NBA Suspends Stackhouse for Flagrant Foul on O’Neal

The NBA said Friday that Dallas Mavericks swingman Jerry Stackhouse would be suspended for Sunday’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals because of his flagrant foul against Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal in Game 4.

The Mavericks, who lost the last two games in the series, will have to do without their sixth man. Stu Jackson, NBA senior vice president, announced Stackhouse’s one-game suspension after reviewing tape of his foul with about six minutes remaining in the third quarter of Miami’s 98-74 victory Thursday.

O’Neal was on a fastbreak and jumped to dunk when Stackhouse fouled him, sending the three-time Finals MVP into the front row. The crowd and Heat bench reacted angrily, and Stackhouse was assessed a flagrant foul.

“My daughters tackle me harder when I come home,” O’Neal said after the game.

Jackson, however, determined “the contact by Jerry Stackhouse was clearly excessive and warrants a suspension,” according to a statement the league released.

Losing Stackhouse, the Mavericks’ fourth-leading scorer in the postseason, occurs at a difficult time for a team suddenly struggling. Dallas held a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series that’s now tied at 2-2, and Miami has been the aggressor since the Finals shifted to its home court.

Dallas Coach Avery Johnson told a Dallas radio station Friday that the Stackhouse suspension was “ridiculous.” He added: “Our fans should be upset, our players will be.”

Both teams were off Friday and players were not available for comment.

Before the suspension was announced, Johnson and Miami Coach Pat Riley downplayed the Stackhouse incident.

Johnson said the foul wasn’t as hard as it appeared.

“If that’s a suspension,” Johnson said, “they will have to go back and review everything that’s happened throughout the playoffs, and maybe go suspend some other players.

“I always talk to them about giving hard fouls, but we definitely don’t want to injure players. That’s not in my repertoire; never will be as a coach.”

Riley also downplayed the foul saying, “It’s just two teams that are competing at a very high level.”

With Stackhouse unavailable, Johnson is expected to increase the minutes of guard Devin Harris and swingman Adrian Griffin. Veteran guard Darrell Armstrong and promising second-year guard Marquis Daniels might also have increased roles.

But Stackhouse is a big part of the offense. Johnson’s game plans are designed, in part, to capitalize on the 11-year veteran’s ability to produce off the bench.

One plus for the Mavericks is that reserve center DJ Mbenga will return after a four-game suspension for going into the stands in the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Suns.

The loss of Stackhouse could provide the jolt the team has appeared to need the last two games. “We’re on vacation right now,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a vacation mentality, so I’m going to fix that.”

The Heat appeared overmatched in losing Games 1 and 2 in Dallas. But in Game 3 in Miami the Mavericks squandered a 13-point lead down the stretch in the Heat’s 98-96 victory, and their hangover lingered in the Game 4 blowout.

Miami is now 10-1 at home in the postseason and could become only the second team to sweep the middle three games of the NBA Finals since the league adopted a 2-3-2 format in 1985.

Guard Dwyane Wade scored 42 and 36 points, respectively, to lead Miami’s turnaround in the past two games.

“When we’ve tried to contain him one-on-one, he’s gotten around us,” Johnson said. “When we’ve tried to quick-trap him, he split the quick-traps. When we’ve tried to slow-trap him, he’s spun out of the slow-traps....

“I’m just going to try to come up with another type of defense. Or, maybe at some point, somebody will get angry enough on our team and we’ll guard him a little bit stronger.”