Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love won’t be suspended for leaving the bench area during a scuffle late in Game 1 of the NBA finals, a source confirmed Friday.
According to the source, the NBA determined that Love was on the floor to contest a call during a dead-ball stoppage before an altercation involving Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson. When the altercation started, the source said, Love went to the bench in a timely manner.
Love said he left the bench in overtime to argue the call on Thompson, walking on the court to get the officials’ attention, not in reaction to any scuffle and before it even broke out.
PISTONS: John Beilein of Michigan was interviewed for Detroit’s coaching vacancy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Beilein led the Wolverines to the NCAA championship game this past season, the second time in six years he’d accomplished that. Michigan lost to Louisville in 2013 and Villanova this year.
The Pistons are searching for a new coach after Stan Van Gundy’s ouster. Van Gundy spent four seasons as their coach, and he was also in charge of basketball operations. Detroit now has to fill both those roles.
Beilein, 65, has been at Michigan for 11 seasons.
TIME WAS running out in a game earlier this season that Golden State would win by 10 points, and Andre Iguodala decided to take a 3-pointer instead of getting the Warriors charged with a shot-clock violation.
The Warriors’ opponent that night: Cleveland.
If an unwritten rule of basketball was broken, no one seemed bothered then. But in Game 1 of the NBA finals, when Shaun Livingston took a jumper with about three seconds left in overtime and the outcome decided, the Cavaliers’ feathers got ruffled and Tristan Thompson got ejected.
One can only guess how those emotions will affect things when the series resumes with Game 2 on Sunday night.
“I contested a shot that shouldn’t have been taken,” Thompson said.
“Whatever. Just play it to the end,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said.
It’s an issue with no solution.
“I mean, it’s like the unspoken rule in the NBA: If you’re up by 10 or 11 with about 20 seconds left, you don’t take that shot,” Thompson said. “I made the contest, and next thing I know I was being kicked out for making a contest we learn in training camp.”
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