Playoffs 2000:Flagrant elbow costs Smits Game 3, $10,000

Flagrant elbow costs Smits Game 3, $10,000
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Rik Smits' errant elbow cost him a one-game suspension and perhaps cost the Indiana Pacers a chance for their first NBA championship.


	Smits

The NBA suspended the 7-foot-4 center on Friday for Game 3 of the Pacers' best-of-five Eastern Conference series against Milwaukee. The Bucks routed the Pacers 104-91 and tied the series at one game apiece Thursday night, when Smits was ejected for throwing an elbow at Ervin Johnson.

"I'm disappointed by it, but what are you going to do?," Smits said after Friday's practice. "I'm just going to try to come back the next game and play my butt off. I wanted to make an aggressive play, but the elbow got caught a little too high."

Johnson was struck in the head by Smits' elbow, although Thursday night he said it just grazed him. Smits gave the league his side of the incident on Friday, then found out about the suspension and a $10,000 fine just before practice.

"I intended to make an aggressive box-out on the play. There was no intention to elbow him in the face. That's what it came down to," Smits said. "There wasn't an intent to hurt.

"But they didn't call an elbowing foul. In the game, when I asked the referee why I was being thrown out, he said I threw a punch, which I never did. It takes a lot to get that out of me, and it was building up over the course of the last game and this game."

Because of the suspension, Smits will watch Saturday night's game from his hotel room.

"It'll be frustrating. It was frustrating last night, but I'll definitely watch it," he said.

Smits has been considering retiring after this season. Larry Bird already has said he will step down as coach, and five other players will be free agents.

"I just want us to do our best," Bird said. "It's not for me. It's for the players. I took this job because I thought they had a great opportunity to go to the finals, and I always say, even when I played, that if you get in the finals anything can happen. That's all I want to see these guys do.

"We've had a couple opportunities that didn't come through, so this is really my last shot," Bird said.

Reggie Miller said he was surprised by Smits' suspension, considering the light blow to Johnson.

"I've seen a lot worse in playoff basketball, especially when we played the Knicks in a few series," Miller said. "There was a lot more blood and gore and gouges but no suspensions. But this is the cleaner, friendlier NBA. It's all about examples.

"We roll with the punches," he said.

"We played a few games without Rik and we've been very successful, so other guys step up. There's no excuses just because he's out. He's a big part, yes, but life goes on. He threw an elbow, he got penalized for it, we move on."

Smits missed three games because of a sore back during the regular season and the Pacers won two of them, including 92-90 at Milwaukee.

"It's never easy without Rik. It's always a struggle," Bird said. "Hopefully we'll get to Milwaukee and get focused again and play some good basketball.

"Dale (Davis) and Austin (Croshere) both can score down low. Zan Tabak showed he can score around the basket. We'll probably post Sam (Perkins) up a little bit more," Bird said. "It's just that Rik is such a big influence. He disrupts the defense when he gets it going. They have to double-team and it gets our shooters open, so we'll miss that."

Mark Jackson said he didn't see the confrontation between Smits and Johnson, so he wouldn't comment on the suspension. However, he said the loss of Smits isn't necessarily fatal.

"I think we become probably more of a force as far as on the glass, and we match up better," Jackson said. "We're not going to say we're going to lose because we don't have him. We're a team that has had guys step up all year long, and this is no different."

Croshere, who could move from his backup spot at power forward to center, said the Pacers still have concerns from Thursday's 104-91 loss.

"We'd like to establish a post presence, draw some fouls early, get things happening," Croshere said. "Obviously, not having Rik there is going to hurt that."