Baron Davis will be allowed to play in Game 5 of the Golden State-Utah series Tuesday night after the NBA league office decided not to suspend him for his hard hit on Derek Fisher of the Jazz in Game 4.
NBA disciplinarian Stu Jackson upgraded the penalty against Davis to a flagrant foul, category 2, but elected not to suspend him.
"It was a relief, but I didn't think I was going to get
suspended anyway. I didn't feel that I should have been
suspended," Davis said.
The Warriors were trailing 102-93 with 97 seconds left Sunday night when Davis missed a 3-pointer and Deron Williams grabbed the rebound. As Derek Fisher turned to go up court, he banged into Davis and went down in a heap, forcing the Jazz to call a 20-second timeout. Replays showed Davis stopping and throwing an elbow, although Fisher said he thought it was Davis' shoulder that caught him in the right ear.
"Boom is tough and hard-nosed, but he wasn't out there trying to hurt anyone, especially me," Fisher said after the game, referring to one of Baron's nicknames, "Boom Dizzle."
Davis, a former teammate of Fisher's, said it was unintentional and apologized to Fisher, who was well enough to finish the game.
"I told him to stop flopping, and he laughed. He said he knows I didn't do it on purpose," Davis said, according to The Associated Press, before the Warriors flew to Utah on Monday. "Me and Derek Fisher, we're great friends. He's a great mentor to me, and in the moment of the game, the heat of the game, there's going to be some contact, some unnecessary contact."
Fisher said any discipline was up to the league, not him.
"I think the game is played at too intense of a level and too
emotional of a level to be able to after a game go back and judge
what a guy's intention was," Fisher said.
Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. The Associated Press contributed to this report.