Ira Winderman

ORLANDO -

Dwight Howard no longer can be himself.

Neither can Kobe Bryant.

Apparently passion has no place in playoff basketball.

While flagrant fouls get subtracted (Anthony Johnson) and added (Dahntay Jones), that at least is the NBA policing physical safety.

But legislating against emotion?

For those just entering the discussion, the league, in its infinitive wisdom of trying to dictate decorum, has an edict in place that mandates a one-game suspension for a player cited for seven technical fouls during the postseason.

Call it the Rasheed Rule, even though Rasheed Wallace has long left the building.

The ticker does not reset after the first round. Or the second round. Or at all in the postseason.

So when the Magic's Howard celebrated his baseline running basket against equally emotive Cavaliers forward Anderson Varejao in Tuesday's emotional third quarter and dared preen in the moment, the Magic center was assessed a technical.

"I guess there is no problem grabbing a guy by the neck as he goes up in the air," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of the start of that sequence. "But you celebrate the basket, that's a problem."

This only was an Eastern Conference finals game destined for overtime, after all, so why dare revel in the moment?

While Mo Williams was kind enough to miss the resulting free throw, Howard's deportment for the balance of the postseason rested in the kindness of the league office.

The technical, you see, was Howard's sixth of the postseason. One more manic moment, perhaps in Thursday's Game 5 in Cleveland, and Howard could have become a spectator for the second time in the postseason.

That could have meant -- and still possible could possibly mean -- missing Saturday's Game 6 back here at Amway Arena, if necessary, or possibly next Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

"All I was doing, I was playing with emotion," Howard said. "You score a big bucket, you let your emotions take over. I wasn't telling Varejao anything. My thing was it was a tough play. He grabbed me around my neck and I made the shot."

It's one thing to have to sit for swinging and landing an elbow, as Howard did in the first round against Philadelphia against Samuel Dalembert.

Acts of physical violence are different. The last thing the league needs to kill its Kobe-LeBron-Carmelo-Dwight-Wade momentum is a return to the Bad Boys era or those vicious Heat-Knicks series.

But how exactly does a league market its new breed when they are no-shows for its signature series?

As expected, the league did the right thing Wednesday and rescinded Tuesday's technical. The only surprise was that the decision lingered for a full 14 hours.

But it still leaves Howard with five technical fouls, the same total as Bryant. In other words, two more for either, an amount that could come in a single game, and a suspension still looms.

Think those faces are glum at ABC's network headquarters now, with LeBron possibly about to vanish from the programming schedule after Tuesday's 116-114 loss put his team down 3-1?

MORE FROM NBA

NBA Section Front

LeBron torches Nets as Cavs win 12th straight Carmelo returns, helps Nuggets trounce Mavs Wizards stranded again after 2nd snowstorm Durant, Thunder enter break on 6-game win streak   PBT: Baseline to baseline — Tuesday's games PBT: Kobe falling apart physically — he should sit Kobe remains a game-time decision for Wed.   Vote: Should Kobe bench himself to heal his injuries? FanHouse: Amateur dunk contest better than real thing? Winderman: Quiet trade front might be ready to boil over NBA Section Front   Add NBA headlines to your news reader: