Mike Brown wants NBA to review Blake Griffin's dunks on Pau Gasol

Mike Brown wants NBA to review Blake Griffin’s dunks on Pau Gasol

By Mark Medina

April 6, 2012 12 AM PT

Immediately after Blake Griffin sent Pau Gasol tumbling to the floor following a monster dunk, the Lakers’ forward stood up and protested, looking for a foul call against Griffin. No luck.

Two days after the Lakers’ 113-108 victory Wednesday over the Clippers, Coach Mike Brown hopes the NBA considers otherwise. He hopes the league reviews both of Griffin’s dunks on Gasol that caused the 18,997 at Staples Center to cheer, Lakers center Andrew Bynum to wince and the entire Clippers bench to erupt.

The most memorable one happened when Griffin threw his left forearm onto Gasol’s head and face to create leverage for his one-handed slam with 7:54 left in the third quarter.

“I think it’s an interesting play and I’m waiting to see an interpretation on the call,” Brown said Friday after the team’s morning shootaround at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo. “It’s a heck of a play. But if you lead with your forearm, it’s an offensive foul. But maybe I don’t know the rules that well.”

The other dunk happened just 1:22 into the game, where Griffin jumped over Gasol’s back on a put-back dunk following Randy Foye‘s missed three-pointer.

“Pau doesn’t leave his feet that high, but [Griffin] left his feet and jumped on his back and knocked him out of bounds,” Brown said. “I want to know what the interpretation is on that. I thought that would be an over-the-back foul.”

Kobe Bryant hardly came to Gasol’s defense on the second slam, describing Griffin’s throwdown as a “legitimate dunk.” But the NBA rulebook states that “A player shall not hold, push, charge into, impede the progress of an opponent by extending a hand, forearm, leg or knee or by bending the body into a position that is not normal. Contact that results in the re-routing of an opponent is a foul which must be called immediately.”

Brown previously asked the NBA to review a non-call on Griffin’s push of Lakers rookie guard Darius Morris in a 102-94 loss to the Clippers on Jan. 14 and to rescind Morris’ technical. Nine days later, Brown said the NBA acknowledged that officials shoul dave given Griffin a technical for pushing Morris in the air, but didn’t issue one retroactively. The league confirmed at the time that it had rescinded the technical foul Morris was given in the third quarter after he entered a near-fray involving several Clippers and Lakers forward Josh McRoberts.

Regardless of the outcome, Brown says he at least hopes the league will provide clarity on the dunk non-calls.

“They’ll get back sometimes and say we were wrong here and we were right here,” said Brown, who added the league contacts General Manager Mitch Kupchak directly on such issues. “They’ll give us clarification after they review it.”

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