Things got a little crazy near the end of the third quarter during the Suns-Rockets game in Phoenix. Houston had a comfortable lead of 74-55, when Matt Barnes fought a little too hard through a Rafer Alston screen, shoving Rafer pretty good to try to get into position to contest a Tracy McGrady three-pointer. The shot went down, but Alston came hard at Barnes, getting chest to chest with him and letting him know the shove was unappreciated. Then things escalated pretty quickly from there. Steve Nash stepped in to try to break it up, McGrady came over and shoved Nash to the floor, Shaquille O'Neal decked T-Mac by shoving him with two hands, and the chaos was on. Nash and Alston were being held apart, coaches came onto the floor -- thankfully, Ron Artest did not -- and that was it as the referees went to the replay before dishing out the technical fouls.
Matt Barnes and Rafer Alston were both ejected, T-Mac and Nash each received technical fouls, and Shaq got one for his shove ... which meant incredibly, the Rockets would get to shoot a technical free throw after their player (Alston) was the one that escalated things to playoff level in the first place.
Now sure, Barnes definitely started things by checking Alston while trying to get through that screen. But Rafer didn't have to run up to him afterwards and get all up in his face like that. Especially with his team up 19 at the time. But hey, this is a guy who talks back to the police to the point where he gets himself arrested, so I guess we really shouldn't be surprised. We'll have to wait and see if the league is going to hand down suspensions; I think Rafer's guaranteed to miss some games, but after that, it's anyone's guess what David Stern's crew will decide.
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