WASHINGTON — It was the Washington Wizards’ turn Friday to complain about being on the receiving end of a hard foul, but it happened before Game 6 of their best-of-seven series with the Cavaliers even started.
In a rough-and-tumble series that has featured a lot of physical play, Wizards forward/center Darius Songaila was suspended for Game 6 for striking Cleveland’s LeBron James in the face with his hand early in Game 5.
“There’s no subliminal message here,” Stu Jackson, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, said when asked if the Songaila suspension may have been the cumulative result of all the hard fouls the Wizards had committed. “We evaluate each of these plays on its own merit.”
Pardon the Wizards if they saw things a bit differently.
“It makes me angry and pumped up,” Washington guard DeShawn Stevenson said before the game. “That’s what happens when a superstar gets hit in the mouth.”
Added backup guard Roger Mason: “Who knows what (NBA executives) are thinking. It’s definitely a shock to us. During the playoffs, you’ve seen worse than that.”
Even James agreed with that last statement, saying the Songaila incident was “probably 10th” on the list of hits he’s endured in the series.
“It’s the playoffs,” the
23-year-old said. “It should be physical. At the same time, you’ve got to draw the line.”
For that reason, James said he was “not surprised” at the suspension because “it was something that wasn’t basketball-related.”
“It is what it is,” the 6-foot-8, 250-pounder said. “I’m not part of the league office. I don’t make the decisions.”
The incident occurred when James drove the baseline with 3:20 remaining in the first period of Washington’s 88-87 win at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday.
Songaila was hit with a personal foul and technical, but Jackson said Friday the officials should have called a flagrant foul instead of the “T.” Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao and Washington’s Stevenson also received technicals as the players in the game at the time congregated around the foul line and words were exchanged.
Songaila appeared to initially hit James under the chin with the back of his hand, but it looked like the Cleveland small forward might have initiated the contact by pulling the Lithuanian’s arm toward him. A later replay, however, showed what appeared to be a soft, perhaps reactionary left hand from Songaila that hit James in the face and sent him reeling.
“It was clear they did get tangled,” Jackson said. “But then upon getting separated, there was contact that occurred where Darius hit LeBron in the head.
“When there’s contact that occurs and it’s not in the normal course of the play, it becomes pretty clear: The suspension is automatic.”
Jackson said the league interviewed Songaila and James, got input from the Game 5 officials and reviewed videotape before deciding to issue the suspension.
“We reviewed it tens of times,” he said. “We don’t take it lightly. We agonize over it.”
When asked if the same punishment would have been doled out had James done the identical thing to Songaila, Jackson said, “If the roles had been reversed, the answer is yes, (James) would have been suspended.”
The loss of Songaila, a backup who was averaging 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 15.4 minutes a game in the series, left Andray Blatche as the only legitimate backup to starting center Brendan Haywood for Game 6.
The suspension wasn’t announced until Friday morning, or one day after the Wizards had gone through a full practice expecting to have Songaila in uniform.

Stop the insanity

Not all the Wizards were thrilled with all the pre-series trash-talking done by Stevenson and Gilbert Arenas.
“We’ve got a lot of personalities on our team,” forward Antawn Jamison told The Washington Post. “Sometimes you can tame them, sometimes you can’t. But this was out of hand. I told them, ‘You can’t get your point across through the media. You have to get your point across on the court.’ … For Caron (Butler) and myself, it was just difficult.
“Don’t get me wrong. I love D-Steve and I love Gil, and I’ll strap it on with them any time. You have to have your teammates’ backs, but what was going on was just nonsense. It had nothing to do with getting respect, because you can only do that by playing well and demonstrating professionalism. You make your noise that way.”

Inspiration

Wizards owner Abe Pollin, 84 and in bad health, spoke to his players before they left for Cleveland for Game 5. Pollin, who bought the franchise in 1964 when the team was still called the Baltimore Bullets, told the Wizards to win the game for themselves and their families, but not for him.
“I was like, ‘Man, those are some words of inspiration,’” Butler said.

Mixed signals

There was talk that the pain in Arenas’ knee was so bad he almost didn’t make the trip to Cleveland for Game 5 because he could barely walk, but when Butler scored with 3.9 seconds to go, the colorful guard was seen jumping up and down in front of the Washington bench.

Tip-ins

Though the foul was actually called on Blatche in Game 1, James was later assessed a flagrant foul by the league for delivering an elbow to the Washington center.
• Prior to Friday, the Cavs’ .418 shooting from the field was the worst among Eastern Conference playoff teams. In the West, only Dallas (.401) and Houston (.413) were worse.
• Washington’s Stevenson has started 250 straight regular-season games, the second-longest active streak in the league behind Detroit’s Tayshaun Prince. 

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