Overview
- Rockets guard Marcus Smart was ejected late in the third quarter of Houston’s Nov. 11 game after he swung at Warriors center Charles Bassey and officials, following replay review, ruled the blow made contact with Bassey’s face.
- The league announced on Thursday that Smart will miss three games without pay, a penalty the NBA said covers Houston’s next three scheduled matchups.
- Rockets coach Ime Udoka relayed Smart’s account that Bassey bent a previously injured elbow and challenged him, while Bassey told reporters he had been playing dirty and called Smart’s action “fake toughness.”
- Under NBA rules any player who throws a punch is ejected after replay review and faces a minimum one‑game suspension plus possible fines which the commissioner may impose, a framework the league applied in this case.
- Smart’s long record of fines, ejections and past suspensions shaped expectations for further discipline and will leave the Rockets without a veteran defensive leader for the next three games, affecting rotation and locker‑room dynamics.