Should Dirk Nowitzki miss any time after last night’s epic collision with Houston forward Carl Landry, I’m wondering what the injury report will say. Perhaps something along the lines of:
Nowitzki: DNP (another man’s teeth embedded in his elbow)
That’s a box score that’ll grab some attention, eh?
In the second quarter last night’s Dallas/Houston game, Landry attempted to step in front of Nowitzki’s drive and draw a charging call. Instead, he caught Nowitzki’s elbow in his teeth. Landry suffered five broken teeth in the exchange — some of which wound up embedded in Nowitzki’s arm. The Houston Chronicle reports it took 30 minutes to remove the shards from Nowitzki’s elbow.
Houston would go on to win in overtime, 116-108.
Mavs to File Protest
Though the score is final, the game might not be settled. Dallas owner Mark Cuban has announced plans to file a formal protest, claiming the referees mis-applied the rules on three separate occasions.
The biggest issue: the Mavericks feel that the officials mis-applied the rules relating to video replay when reviewing a “flagrant one” foul called against Houston’s Aaron Brooks in overtime. During the review, officials determined that Dallas center Erick Dampier retaliated against Brooks with an elbow, and called a technical foul on the big man. The tech was his second, so he was booted from the game.
NBA rules state that only “flagrant two” fouls are subject to immediate video review.
There could be a method to Mark Cuban’s madness here. If the protest is upheld, the game would be replayed from the point that Dampier was ejected. And when that happens, odds are Dirk Nowitzki — who didn’t return to the game after the second-quarter colission — would be available.
Nowitzki and Landry: That Bites originally appeared on About.com Basketball on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 12:56:36.
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