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Revisiting the most important playoff suspensions in NBA history

Alonzo Mourning didn't get the Draymond Green treatment from the league office. (Getty Images)
Alonzo Mourning didn't get the Draymond Green treatment from the league office. (Getty Images)

Since the NBA started rewarding physical altercations with harsher penalties in the early 1990s, we’ve thankfully seen the league’s players tone down the actual fisticuffs. Whereas former NBA players like Maurice Lucas, Kevin McHale and just about every late 1980s Detroit Pistons big man you can think of once got away with relatively slim fines for their actions, resulting generations have been asked to sit out games.

[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

Even playoff games.

In the wake of Draymond Green’s Suspension That Wasn’t, we thought it interesting to take a look at some of the more notable and eventually important NBA player postseason suspensions:

1,643. Dahntay Jones, 2016

Jones, celebrating his 62nd total minute as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday evening, found glass-clearing Toronto center Bismack Biyombo with a shot to the groin in Cleveland’s Game 3 loss.

As our Dan Devine explained on Monday, Jones’ resultant one-game suspension cost him only a fraction of the minimum salary he signed to just days before the 2015-16 regular season, just a few pennies above $80 in total. No wonder LeBron James offered to pay for the fine, as if he was picking up that afternoon’s 2000 calorie per-plate lunch at Cheesecake Factory.

Jones nor James will be out a whole lot of cash, and nobody on the Raptors noticed that Dahntay Jones wasn’t in the arena on Monday night.

Well, Bismack might have.

8. J.R. Smith, 2015

The then-Knicks guard was suspended for a playoff game in 2013 for an altercation with then-Boston guard Jason Terry, but his one-game penalty paled in comparison to what could have been during the 2015 Eastern Conference semifinals.

Smith was suspended for two games for running roughshod over Boston Celtics forward Jae Crowder in Cleveland’s deciding Game 4 win over the C’s last year. The game itself had already done a number on Cleveland – earlier forward Kevin Love separated his shoulder in a rebounding scrum and would be lost for the season – while it would be discovered later that backcourt mate Kyrie Irving was playing through a painful knee injury.

Chicago, Cleveland’s expected season-long rival for the Eastern crown, awaited in the second round. The Bulls took Game 1 of the series with Smith watching from his hotel room, nabbing the home-court advantage in a contest that saw Love on the sideline and replacement swingman Mike Miller struggling to offer much substance in reserve (three points in 16 minutes). Cleveland’s run to the East title looked very much in peril.

Following a Game 2 win, Cleveland was on its way to overtime in Chicago during Game 3 when LeBron James hit a game-winner to take back the home-court advantage. Smith returned for 14 points on eight shots in that season-saver.

7. Jason Terry, 2006

The well-traveled Dallas guard was a significant chunk of the Mavericks’ attack that particular season, and though Terry has never been known for chippy play, his shot to the groin of Michael Finley in the fifth game of the Western Conference finals nearly cost the Mavs a chance at its first Finals.

Finley, who played with Terry and the Mavericks the season before, did nothing to provoke the attack, and the Mavs’ guard was lost for a Game 6 Spurs win that tied the series up 3-3. Though Dirk Nowitzki contributed 27 points and 21 rebounds with five assists, Terry’s replacement (veteran guard Jerry Stackhouse) missed 15 of 17 shots in the loss.

It took Dirk’s 37 points, 13 rebounds and zero turnovers in Game 7 for Dallas to emerge with a series win. In his return, Terry contributed 27 points as Dallas made its first NBA Finals.

6. Derek Harper, 1994

With a horrified David Stern watching from just a few feet away, Chicago and New York’s nasty rivalry spilled into the Chicago Stadium stands as the Knicks guard and Bulls reserve Jo Jo English went at it:

It wasn’t a fair trade off for New York: Harper had been a celebrated midseason acquisition earlier in 1993-94, while English played the fourth fewest minutes of any Bull that season. Harper was lost for the next two games, while English was suspended for only one game and played just seven more career minutes as a Chicago Bull.

With the inexperienced Greg Anthony replacing him in the lineup, New York went on to lose Game 4 of the series and was one blown Hue Hollins call away from dropping Game 5 to Chicago, escaping with a one-point win. New York would go on to take the series in seven contests, its first playoff win in four tries against the Bulls, on its way toward an Eastern championship.

5. Zach Randolph, 2014

The argument for the importance of this suspension is well-taken, despite the low ranking for a Game 7 lost forever.

Randolph’s Memphis Grizzlies were a 50-win team that season, they were playing in a first-round series against Oklahoma City that they evenly matched, in a pairing that featured four overtime contests in the first five games of the series, and the Grizzlies had taken six of nine games (including a 2013 playoff win) against the would-be second-round opponent in the Los Angeles Clippers.

Still, the Grizzlies were up against a formidable Thunder team working with a healthy Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and Russell Westbrook – back to full strength after three knee surgeries in 12 months. The Grizzlies were down 17 points at home in what could have been a series-clinching game when Zach Randolph was judged to have thrown a punch at rookie OKC center Steven Adams:

Importance or not, one can understand the frustration: Adams started the dirty play, and Randolph’s reaction hardly looked like a textbook definition of a punch. When Zach Randolph wants to punch someone, you can be sure, he’s going to punch someone.

Still, the NBA stuck to its law and suspended the big forward (who averaged 18.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in the series) for the deciding Game 7, which Memphis lost in Oklahoma City. Replacing Tayshaun Prince and the suspended Randolph in the starting lineup were Tony Allen and Mike Miller, and the Grizzlies went on to give up a season-high 120 points in the loss.

4. Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning, 1998

Known best for the sight of then-Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy comically clinging to Mourning’s leg in an attempt to wrest the center out of the melee, this brouhaha should be best known for denying what was a championship-level Heat team from a shot at the ring.

Miami had made the Eastern finals the year before and were a few minutes away from facing down a series-deciding Game 5 back home in Miami, up against a Patrick Ewing-less Knicks crew, when Mourning decided to get in a needless fight with former Charlotte teammate Larry Johnson.

Contract comparisons between the two led to Mourning requesting and receiving a trade from the Hornets just prior to 1995-96, and Johnson’s giant deal and aching back were dealt to New York the next offseason, breaking up was thought to be one of the NBA’s emerging young teams. For whatever reason, despite being aware that one thrown punch would earn an automatic suspension, the two went at it at the absolute worst time.

This time, the one-sided trade was in New York’s favor.

With Mourning suspended, the Johnson-less Knicks cruised to a Game 5 win two nights later. Heat president and coach Pat Riley dealt the league’s best backup center in Ike Austin just a few months before for guard Brent Barry (who was oddly left off Miami’s playoff roster), so luminaries like Duane Causwell, Mark Strickland and Marty Conlon had to step in for Mourning in the final game of the best-of five series. P.J. Brown played 47 of a possible 48 minutes, even sweating down the stretch in garbage time as New York pulled away for a 17-point win.

2. Every other member of the Knicks, no Heat, 1997

With brawls becoming more and more prevalent, even in the wake of the fading of Detroit’s Bad Boys, the NBA had to step up to curb the epidemic.

New York was involved in two of the more horrifying ones, with the English/Harper melee discussed above, and an extended regular season back and forth in Phoenix that saw inactive players in street clothes suddenly turn rather active:

As a result, the league put together a no-nonsense policy. If you take just a step off the bench to “defend” a teammate or even get a better look at an altercation, that’s an automatic suspension. If you throw a punch – no matter how feeble, no matter its success rate – that’s an automatic suspension for one game or maybe more.

The Knicks and Heat were well aware of this as they lined up at the free-throw line in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but that didn’t stop the bum rush:

Already on the bench due to the unwinnable nature of the final minutes of Game 5, Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson and Sixth Man Award winner John Starks left the pine to rush to Charlie Ward’s (who was also suspended) aid. That’s, like, all the good Knicks, and they were all suspended for a game. Charles Oakley, thankfully, had already been ejected for attempting to spar with Alonzo Mourning and was unable to influence the proceedings.

Because of the sheer amount of Knicks suspended (no Heat player received a punishment), the league had to stagger things – Ewing, Ward and Houston were left out for Game 6’s home loss to Miami, L.J. and Starks for Game 7. It was an unprecedented move, but with not enough active players available it was also a needed one.

Miami rolled, winning three in a row overall to move on to the next round. Though New York would make the Finals over Miami in 1999, by then Ewing was suffering from serious Achilles, knee and wrist injuries, and was never the same player following a late 1997 fall. It may have been his best chance to finally get past Michael Jordan.

1. Suns and Spurs, 2007

The previous two suspensions may have devastated the championship hopes (Mourning would go on to win one as a reserve in 2006) of two future Hall of Fame centers, but this incident may have cost the best point guard of his generation a title, and it took place in what was easily the most competitive and talent-rich series of the 2007 NBA playoffs. Miami and New York still had Michael Jordan lying in wait following their suspended turns a decade prior, whereas the Suns and Spurs were the real NBA Finals in 2007.

Or, at least, they should have been.

The Suns, fully healthy and with Amar’e Stoudemire back in the fold, were working in the closing minutes of a series-tying Game 4 win in the Western semis when forward Robert Horry sent star Steve Nash crashing into the scorer’s table, ostensibly to send the career 90 percent free-throw shooter to the line to stop the clock:

It was a violent move, but the Suns appeared to react tactfully, mindful of the league’s rules and the long road it took to overcome two injury-riddled playoff turns in 2005 and 2006. Upon review, though, it was determined that Stoudemire and big man Boris Diaw briefly left the bench to get a better look at their crumpled point guard, and the league came down with a one-game suspension for each (Horry, a bit player in his penultimate NBA season, was suspended two games for his work).

Suns coach Mike D’Antoni, to his credit, also came down with this classic quote:

“We have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world in Arizona, [and] you could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that decision. That's kind of how it feels. It really benefits no one. It doesn't benefit us, obviously. It doesn't benefit the Spurs. It doesn't benefit the fans. It doesn't benefit the NBA."

It sure as hell benefitted the Spurs.

Essentially working with a six-man rotation, the Suns lost Game 5 at home with Leandro Barbosa moving into a small lineup. Stoudemire (who notched 38 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and zero turnovers) and Diaw returned for Game 6, but by then Martyr Ball had taken hold, and the Spurs romped.

San Antonio went on to win eight of nine playoff games in subsequent strikingly dull playoff series’ against Utah and Cleveland, grabbing its fourth title. Phoenix would lose again to the Spurs in the first round in 2008, and miss the playoffs entirely the following season.

It’s arguable that the Knick and Heat suspensions carried more weight, but ask yourself this in summation – what would you rather watch more of, a full-strength Suns/Spurs series, or a full-strength Heat/Knicks series?

What Could Have Been: Draymond Green, 2016

Green is not a franchise player like Patrick Ewing or Alonzo Mourning, and it’s unlikely that had he been suspended and returned for Game 5 the forward would have ended up tossing in 38 points as Stoudemire did nine years ago (the most Draymond has scored this year is 29). Still, his worth to the Warriors is incalculable, and even though we’ll never know how a Draymond-less Game 4 would have turned out, losing a top five MVP candidate while down 2-1 is some rather substantial stuff.

Especially when you throw on the burden of Golden State’s regular-season record of 73-9, and those championship expectations.

Draymond did not perform well in Game 3, missing eight of nine shots in the heat of Oklahoma City’s blowout win. Even in a series that hasn’t seen him screen as actively as he’s used to, however, he remains cruelly vital to Golden State’s Western championship hopes.

Looking for in-season precedence is a stretch, but the lone game Draymond missed this year was one of just three defeats in 39 tries at the time for the Warriors, as the team fell to Denver by a 112-110 score in mid-January. Jason Thompson, who is not even on the team anymore, took his spot in the starting lineup.

Had there been a suspension, Golden State had the tools to capably circle the wagons without Draymond with its various rotation parts in Game 4, and also the talent and reserve needed to score three consecutive wins and take the series after falling behind 3-1. Still, while a suspension would not have been the end of the world, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been incredibly tough.

(Groin joke.)

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!