Reply #4: the bench area is clearly marked

[northzax]

leaving it is what causes trouble. I think the Game 4 decision was incorrect, based on the current rule.

as for Bowen, good for him for making a career out of being a hack. but this is where a sport like hockey actually has it right. Why, in a much more violent sport, do stars manage to play so long and so well? how did a guy built like Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemiuex manage to survive in a rough, violent league for two decades against bigger, stronger guys? enforcers. the rules of a game didn't prevent Gretzky from getting killed, Marty McSorley did. you cheap shot our star? we will go after yours, and the code of honor is complete. It doesn't even really need to happen very often, the threat is there and real. an intentional hard foul will be answered with another one. not on you, but on your star. When Bowen hits Nash too hard, Troy Parker should be hesitating to drive the lane, knowing that he will be hit hard. it becomes self regulating. Late career Jordan (who was plenty violent himself at times) had it with Charles Oakley and occasionaly Dennis Rodman. Rodman was just crazy enough, and Oakley was strong and dedicated enough, that you knew they could hurt your guy, if they really wanted to. This threat has been realistically taken out of the NBA game (the Suns have no one to protect Nash, no one to in essence trade for whoever hits Nash) for all the star system in the NBA, the rules cannot really protect against a clever hack like Bowen. heck, the Spurs would trade a Bowen expulsion for a Nash one anyday.