Tempers fly as Miami Heat’s Howard, Washington Wizard’s Armstrong get ejected in third quarter
After the pre-match rumours of a rift between Miami Heat head coach, Erik Spoelstra, and LeBron James were quashed as the two held a meeting minutes before the match, Miami returned to winning ways doing what they are good at – beating up the weaker teams
– as they scored a resounding 105-94 win over the Washington Wizards, sans John Wall.
The night though was overshadowed by the altercation between Juan Howard and Hilton Armstrong, the unfortunate moment coming with 32 seconds left in the third quarter.
Things were heating up as Dwyane Wade ripped through the Wizards defense midway through the third quarter notching up 15 quick points to bust open a 22 point lead. The situation reached a boiling point when Armstrong committed a flagrant foul on Heat center
Joel Anthony, pushing him down with both hands, after he collected an offensive rebound and rose for a layup attempt. It was deemed later to be a flagrant-2 infraction.
While the event unfolded, Juan Howard, seeing his teammate vociferously floored couldn’t control his temper as he shoved Armstrong to the ground, followed by an exchange of words between the players from both teams. Both Howard and Armstrong were ejected
from the game subsequently.
The unfortunate incident though, might be a blessing in disguise for the Miami Heat as for the first time this season they looked like a group that had each other’s back.
Dwyane Wade lent his support to Howard post match "I love what the veteran on our team did”, and he was followed by Chris Bosh.
“You always have to have that mentality in any game”, he said. “If people see a weakness in you and see that you’re not going to do anything when they push, then you’re going to have that reputation in the league”.
Armstrong though was quite excusatory after the match.
"I wasn't really trying to hurt him or anything like that, I just didn't want him to have any easy dunk or an easy lay-up", he said in an apologetic tone.
"You clearly saw he lost his balance when he was in the air. I didn't mean to hit him that hard, but he fell. I went to go try to help him out, but then Howard came and pushed me in the back”.
In the end, all was good for the Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, who got his 100th win as a head coach and he will be happy to see his players finally becoming a team.
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