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PHOENIX - Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw accepted their one-game suspension with little criticism on Wednesday. Their coach had plenty to say.
“You know we do have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world in Arizona,” Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said after the Suns’ morning shootaround. “You could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that decision.”
The NBA suspended Stoudemire and Diaw for Wednesday night’s Game 5 of what’s become an intense, rough Western Conference semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs.
The two violated an NBA rule by leaving the bench area after Robert Horry’s flagrant foul on Steve Nash in the final seconds of Phoenix’s 104-98 victory in Game 4, a win that tied the series at 2-2.
Horry was suspended for Game 5 and Friday night’s Game 6.
Commissioner David Stern canceled his scheduled trip to Phoenix for Game 5. He plans to go to Cleveland instead.
While acknowledging their two players broke the rule, the Suns believe they got the worst of an incident instigated by the Spurs.
“We definitely got punished for what they did,” Stoudemire said. “But I guess that’s the rules right now where it stands, and I have no control over it.”
The rule, strictly enforced in the past, is aimed at preventing a fight from escalating into a full-scale brawl.
“I know for a fact that Boris Diaw would never, ever be in a fight,” D’Antoni said. “I know that. To suspend him for going to Steve Nash, for looking and curiosity, that’s a little harsh.”
The Frenchman Diaw said he could not remember being in a fight, even as a kid.
“I’ve been in the NBA for four years and I haven’t got even one technical foul,” Diaw said. “I was just looking to see that Steve was all right.”
But he agreed he should have known better than to walk toward Nash.
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“You fight against your instincts, but you’ve got to overcome that,” Diaw said. “That was my mistake to walk a few feet toward Steve.”
Stoudemire abandoned his excuse that he was trying to check in to the game.
“I know you can’t step on the court and at that time it was a natural reaction,” he said. “I was more concerned about Steve’s health, and I got penalized for it.”
Stoudemire said he would watch the game from his restaurant, “Stoudemire’s Downtown,” across the street from US Airways Center.
Meanwhile, Horry said he was “an old school guy” and that in his early years, his foul would have been no big deal. He said he bumped Nash when he realized he wouldn’t be able to get in front of him to draw an offensive foul.
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