INDIANAPOLIS _ The NBA came down swiftly, but perhaps not as harshly as the blow that triggered the penalty, suspending Miami Heat forward James Johnson from Wednesday's game against the Indiana Pacers because of his scrap a night earlier with Toronto Raptors forward Serge Ibaka.
With the players trading blows, Ibaka also received a one-game suspension, to be served when the Raptors host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night at Air Canada Centre, the scene of Tuesday's heavyweight standoff.
By rule, Johnson was not allowed to be at Bankers Life Fieldhouse when the Heat closed out the back-to-back set that began with Tuesday's 90-89 victory.
That game ended with Heat guard Goran Dragic and Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan involved in a shoving match, separated by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, among others.
Dragic was fined $10,000 for his role in that altercation, with no suspension.
Johnson is in the first year of a four-year, $60 million contract, with a salary of $13,954,000 this season. That would leave the cost of a one-game suspension at $170,000.
Johnson appeared to connect with at least one blow as the two players prepared for a Toronto inbound pass less than four minutes into the second half.
The amount of the lost wages can be appealed, but not the suspension itself.
His team already decimated by injuries, including a shoulder issue that kept guard Tyler Johnson out of Tuesday's game, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra prepared for Wednesday's game braced for the worst.
"We're going to wait from the league," Spoelstra said, "and we'll just wait until we find out when we talk to the league."
With their roster shorthanded, the Heat kept guard Derrick Walton Jr. with their traveling party to Indiana. Walton met the team Tuesday in Toronto, where he was scheduled to play for the Heat's developmental-league affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, in the G League Showcase. Instead, the clock on his two-way contract is now down to 12 remaining allowable NBA days, before he either must be converted to a standard NBA contract, be returned to the Skyforce for the balance of the season or be released.
Tensions ran high throughout Tuesday's game, which was decided by Wayne Ellington's driving layup with three-tenths of a second to play.
"It certainly felt like there was something at stake from the very tip, and that's the way it should be in this league," Spoelstra said. "There was a physicality, an edge to the game."
Of the postgame shoving with DeRozan, Dragic said, "Nothing special, just exchanged some words."
Spoelstra downplayed that incident.
"With the Goran, DeRozan situation I'm not sure what happened," Spoelstra said. "'I think that was defused by the time I got there."
Johnson has only recently regained his stride, after missing six games in a seven-game stretch due to ankle bursitis. He and Ibaka were ejected after each receiving one technical foul.
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