Houston's Marcus Smart Banned for Three Games After Swinging at Warriors Center Charles Bassey
The NBA has suspended Houston Rockets guard Marcus Smart for three games without pay after he swung at Golden State Warriors center Charles Bassey. The league announced the ban on Thursday. The swing grazed Bassey's nose, according to the report.
The incident came in the third quarter of Houston's 115-108 win over Golden State. Smart and Bassey got tied up fighting for position under the basket, then exchanged words as the play moved on. Smart then threw a right hook that grazed Bassey's nose.
Teammates, coaches and officials quickly stepped between the two players. Smart walked toward the locker room before the replay review had finished. Referees assessed him a Flagrant 2 foul, and it was the 13th ejection of his career.
Before the ejection, Smart had played 17 minutes and finished with six points, two rebounds and one assist. The 32-year-old guard is a former Defensive Player of the Year.
Because of the ban, Smart will miss Friday's home game against the Utah Jazz, Sunday's road game in Washington and Monday's trip to Miami. He will be eligible to return on November 18 against the Indiana Pacers.
After the game, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka relayed Smart's explanation to reporters. According to Udoka, Smart claimed Bassey had wrapped up his previously injured elbow during the tangle. When Smart confronted him about it, Bassey allegedly replied, "What you gonna do?" Udoka told reporters, "And he did it."
Bassey played 13 minutes in the game and finished with seven points and six rebounds. In the locker room afterwards he criticised Smart's conduct. Bassey accused Smart of playing dirty all night, alleging that the guard had grabbed his knee in the first half while Bassey tried to set a screen.
Bassey admitted he had baited Smart into reacting, and dismissed the punch as an excuse to leave the game early. He said, "I knew he was gonna do something. I baited for him to do something, because I knew he was going to do something. I don't think he was trying to play. I think he was trying to get himself out of the game. He wasn't trying to play. I think he was trying to chill. He wasn't trying to hoop, bro."
The ban is the third NBA suspension of Smart's 13-year career. He was previously banned for one game for hitting Matt Bonner in 2015 and for one game for threatening an official in 2021. He has also received more than a dozen fines, including a $50,000 penalty for shoving Joel Embiid in 2019.
Even with Smart leaving early, Houston still closed out the seven-point win. The suspension will, however, cost him three games and, because it is without pay, a six-figure sum, according to the report.
