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11/12 17:10 CST Marcus Smart suspended 3 games by the NBA for throwing a punch at Warriors' Bassey Marcus Smart suspended 3 games by the NBA for throwing a punch at Warriors' Bassey By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer Marcus Smart of the Houston Rockets was handed a three-game suspension by the NBA on Thursday for throwing a punch at Charles Bassey of the Golden State Warriors. Smart will begin serving the suspension Friday at home against Utah, then will miss road games at Washington on Sunday and at Miami on Monday. He will forfeit roughly $125,500 in salary. Smart was ejected with 21 seconds left in the third quarter of the Rockets-Warriors game on Wednesday night after his punch at Bassey was declared a Flagrant 2 foul --- "contact to the nose," referee crew chief Mitchell Ervin said after the play was reviewed. The Flagrant 2 comes with an automatic ejection, which is then reviewed by the league office. NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations James Jones, who handles player discipline, handed down the suspension. Bassey told reporters in Houston after Wednesday's game that he felt Smart had been "playing dirty" throughout the contest. "It didn't surprise me. I knew he was going to do something," Bassey said. "I don't think he was trying to play. I think he was trying to get himself out of the game. ... That was fake, fake toughness." Rockets coach Ime Udoka said he spoke with Smart after the game. Smart's perspective, Udoka said, was that he and Bassey got tangled up and that Smart felt challenged. "Bassey said, ?What you gonna do?' And he did it," Udoka said.

Past incidents and history Smart, then of Boston, was suspended for one game in 2015 for hitting Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs in the groin. He also got a one-game suspension in 2021 for directing threatening language toward a game official. Smart has been fined on at least 12 other occasions for various on-court disciplinary matters, including involvement in at least four altercations --- one meriting a $50,000 fine for shoving Philadelphia's Joel Embiid in 2019. At that time, the league cited "his repeated acts of unsportsmanlike conduct during NBA games" as justification for the higher-than-usual fine. He is also a past winner of the NBA's Hustle and Defensive Player of the Year awards, plus was honored by the league's NBA Cares program in 2022 for his work with pediatric cancer patients and creating opportunities for inner-city student-athletes. ___ See AP's full NBA coverage here

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