Second-Round Knockouts

MIAMI — One thing is certain, the New York Knicks will never, ever leave a bench again.

In a stunning jolt to their aspirations, which include winning a championship, and their schedule, which called for disposing of the Miami Heat in New York tonight and moving on to play the Chicago Bulls, the NBA office Thursday suspended five of them for their part in the melee at the end of Game 5.

For the Knicks, it was the wrong five too.

Since teams must dress nine players, only three at a time can serve their suspensions, so missing tonight’s game will be Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston--the team’s two top scorers--and reserve point guard Charlie Ward.

Missing the one after that--be it Game 7 of this series or Game 1 against the Bulls--will be Larry Johnson and John Starks, their third- and fourth-leading scorers.

Ward must sit out immediately because he was one of the principals in the fight. Ewing and Houston will sit out Game 6 because the NBA uses an alphabetical system when numerous players are suspended to determine who sits out first.

Of the five, only Ward actually fought anybody, wrestling with Miami’s P.J. Brown. The four others were set down for leaving the bench during a fight, which calls for automatic suspension.

Brown, the only Miami player suspended, will sit out two games. The six suspensions constitute the most severe penalty in NBA playoff history.

Reaction in New York was swift and outraged.

“All of our players served as peacemakers,” Knick General Manager Ernie Grunfeld said. “They wanted to help one of their own and I’m proud they stood up for their teammate.”

He especially criticized the NBA’s decision to suspend Ewing.

“He was nowhere near the action. They really went by the letter of the law in Patrick’s case,” he said.

In Miami, where the Heat has long complained that the league office is out to get the new Pat Riley administration, it was accepted as a model of basketball jurisprudence.

“Everybody on our side believes there was provocation,” Riley said after his team’s practice, “and everyone up north believes the opposite. That’s the nature of life.

“Why would Charlie Ward do that [throw himself at Brown’s knees after a free throw, prompting Brown to flip Ward and the Knick bench to empty]?

“Why make that kind of play at the end [the Heat led, 90-74, with 1:53 left] unless they wanted to instigate something? Why not just get out of the building? We did that in Game 4 [the Heat’s one-sided loss at New York.] They didn’t.”

Bill Hunter, executive director of the NBA Players Assn., said Thursday night the league “acted improperly in suspending those players who left the bench as peacemakers.”

Union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler said he will go to U.S. District Court in Manhattan today, seeking a temporary restraining order that would delay any suspensions until the union appeals the penalties to the NBA’s arbitrators.

There has been bad blood between the teams since Riley left the Knicks to take over the Heat two seasons ago but the feud aspect of the series lay dormant for the first four games.

However, the Heat was bristling at a play late in Game 4 when Ewing knocked Brown down. As Alonzo Mourning came over to pick him up, Charles Oakley stepped over Brown. The Heat took it as a deliberate insult and a challenge.

Riley had been denying there is a feud--and told his players not to talk about hating the Knicks, as some of them had during the season--but there is no doubt the teams were on war footing.

Riley says someone sitting near the Knick bench yelled, “Hit somebody on this free throw!” just before the incident, and thinks the Knicks were trying to incite trouble, to get a Heat player in trouble.

“All my starters were out there,” Riley said. “They pretty much had taken everybody off the floor.”

Ironically, Brown is a soft-spoken young man who was just voted the the league’s sportsman of the year. For his part, Ward, the former Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback, is soft-spoken, deeply religious and has never been involved in anything of this sort.

“I don’t have second thoughts,” Brown said Thursday. “It’s what I had to do.

In addition to the suspensions, Brown was fined $10,000; Ward $6,000; and Ewing, Houston, Johnson and Starks $2,500 each.

The Knicks were fined $20,000--$5,000 for each player who left the bench, and Starks was fined an additional $5,000 for making an obscene gesture toward the crowd.

The Knicks lead the series, 3-2, but now it’s a brand new matchup.

Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy will probably start Buck Williams in place of Ewing and Starks in place of Houston. Riley needs to replace only Brown, his No. 4 scorer in this series, and he has a capable backup in Ike Austin.

“They’re deeper than we are,” Riley said. “They could lose a couple of parts and survive. When we lose Brown, we lose a lot. But they have to win at home. They don’t want to come back here for Game 7.”

If the Heat forces Game 7, Riley will field his Game 6 lineup. Van Gundy will have Ewing and Houston back, but he’ll lose Starks, this season’s winner of the NBA’s sixth-man award, and will have to replace Johnson, probably with rookie John Wallace, who has played little in this series.

They will also be in Miami, where they won’t be among friends.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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NBA Playoff Suspensions

* May 27, 1987--Robert Parish of the Boston Celtics was suspended for one game and fined $7,500 for punching Detroit’s Bill Laimbeer during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on May 26.

* May 2, 1994--Dennis Rodman of the San Antonio Spurs was suspended for one game and fined $10,000 for various actions during Game 2 of the Western Conference first-round series against Utah on April 30.

* May 2, 1994--Keith Askins of the Miami Heat was suspended for three games and fined $15,000; Douglas Edwards of the Atlanta Hawks was suspended for two games and fined $10,000 and Miami’s Grant Long was suspended for one game and fined $10,000 for their part in a brawl during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference first-round series on April 30.

* May 7, 1994--Sam Cassell of the Houston Rockets was suspended for one game and fined $2,5000 for throwing a punch at Portland’s Jerome Kersey during Game 4 of the Western Conference first-round series on May 6.

* May 14, 1994--New York’s Derek Harper was suspended for two games and fined $15,000, and Chicago’s Jo Jo English was suspended for one game and fined $10,000 for their parts in a wild fight during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on May 13.

* April 23, 1996--Shawn Kemp of the Seattle SuperSonics was suspended for his team’s first game in the playoffs and fined $7,500. On April 21, the final game of the regular season, Kemp exchanged punches with Denver’s Tom Hammonds.

* May 15, 1997--Five New York Knicks, including three starters, and P.J. Brown of the Miami Heat were suspended for their part in a bench-clearing brawl in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on May 14. Charlie Ward, Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, and John Starks of the Knicks each were suspended for one game. Brown was suspended for two games. Inactive Knick rookie Dontae’ Jones also was suspended for a game and was banned from sitting on the bench for the rest of the postseason.--Associated Press