Letter of the law

I wish Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw weren't suspended for Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals against San Antonio.

All knotted up 2-2 after a Game 4 win, we had a situation where two great basketball teams could conceivably play in one of those Game 7 epics.

Not to be, I guess.

Not after Steve Nash was checked into the first row by Robert Horry. You know the story. Nash gets checked, Diaw and Stoudemire advance onto the court ... series over.

You can blame a handful of people. Blame Stoudemire and Diaw if you want. Technically, if those two just didn't approach the floor, or Horry, they wouldn't have been suspended for one game.

I don't blame them. It was a cheap, hard foul that looked worse than it actually was when Nash flopped into the scorer's table like he'd just been hit by Ray Lewis. Yes, it was a hard foul. But that was a great sell by the Canadian.

Phoenix's assistant coaches deserve some of the blame. Their main job, other then to get head coach Mike D'antonio coffee in the morning, is to make sure that in a potential brawl-like situation, that nobody (OK, the star players) leave the bench. They waited until Stoudemire reacted to react themselves.

But you can't blame David Stern for this one. The rule is incredibly clear - if you leave the bench area, you'll be suspended.

It's a weirdly worded rule, but it's not a secret. Everyone knows about it.

Stern followed the letter of the law, like he should have.

Like he had to.