After all of the chaos and shoving that unfolded Friday night, five players from the Heat and Pelicans — including Jimmy Butler — were suspended, the NBA announced Sunday.
Butler and Pelicans forward Naji Marshall each were suspended for one game for “instigating and engaging in an on-court altercation,” while Thomas Bryant and Jose Alvarado were suspended three games for leaving the Miami and New Orleans benches, respectively, and fighting on the court.
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Nikola Jović, a Heat forward, was suspended one game for leaving their bench during the brawl and “entering an on-court altercation,” and those absences will start — or be served — when the teams each play their next game.
The incident occurred early in the fourth quarter of their game Friday, when Zion Williamson stole the ball and was grabbed by Kevin Love when attempting a layup — causing him to fall onto the Smoothie King Center court after the shot attempt.
A cluster of players raced over, and at one point, Butler tried to pull Marshall away from the group and received a shove from the 26-year-old small forward in return.
Later, as the shoving continued, Marshall appeared to grab the area around Butler’s neck.
Referees and team staffers had seemingly separated everyone after about 30 seconds, but after a brief pause, players started sprinting back toward each other from the benches — with the Bally Sports announcers specifically referencing Bryant and Jović by name, while a video from the stands captured Bryant and Alvarado exchanging punches near the scorer’s table.
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Williamson told reporters postgame that Love “actually protected me on my foul,” while Butler attributed Marshall putting “his hands on K-Love” as the reason for why the situation escalated.Butler, Marshall, Alvarado and Bryant were all ejected from the game, in addition to receiving technical fouls, and the Heat ended up winning, 106-95, behind 24 points from Bam Adebayo.
“It was just, I think, a misunderstanding of the play,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters postgame, according to the Associated Press. “I think Zion slipped on the play when K-Love grabbed him and it looked a lot worse than what it was. And then everybody kind of overreacted.”
Miami travels to Sacramento and will face the Kings on Monday without Butler, Bryant and Jović, while the Pelicans won’t have Marshall and Alvarado when they host the Bulls on Sunday.