NEWS » es where hindsight would have been

NEW YORK -- Miamis LeBron James and Indianas David West and Lance Stephenson were all fined $5,000 by the NBA on Thursday for violating the leagues anti-flopping policy. James and West were penalized for the same play during a messy Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. James spun and fell and West tumbled toward the baseline during what looked like a poorly choreographed dance routine as the NBAs MVP defended the Indiana forward. Stephenson was fined for exaggerating the contact after a slight elbow from Ray Allen following his basket, staggering back toward the sideline after making a short jumper. The NBA began fining players this year for trying to fool referees into calling fouls when there had been limited contact. "We accept it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday. "We dont want the attention or the focus to be on the officiating. We want it to be on the competition." Game 5 of the series is Thursday night in Miami, with the teams knotted at two games apiece. "I have no thoughts on officiating or flopping," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "I have nothing to share. Im sorry." The Pacers 99-92 victory Tuesday was filled with physical plays and marked by a combined 55 personal fouls. One of those fouls, committed by West against Dwyane Wade with 5:57 left in the fourth quarter of Game 4, was upgraded by the NBA to a flagrant-1. "At this moment, youve got to do whatever you have to do within the guidelines of the game to try to win, whether its trying to draw fouls or whatever," West said. "Its just part of the game." Heat players were apparently unaware of the NBAs decisions while they were holding their game-day shootaround practice Thursday morning. "I didnt even know they handed out three flops," Heat forward Chris Bosh said. "I didnt know. We didnt talk about it at all. Were concentrating on other things. Those things we cant do anything about. This is the type of series where youre going to have to focus on very specific things, possession by possession. And if youre looking at something else, youre doing your team a disservice." The amount of contact in this series has been amped up from basically the beginning, though it hasnt reached the over-the-top level that the Pacers and Heat reached in their sometimes-bloody matchup in the second round last season. The Pacers were upset earlier in the series about the perception that Shane Battier was guilty of a dirty play when he kneed Pacers centre Roy Hibbert in the midsection on a drive in Game 1. And even on Thursday, before Game 5, Battier was still a topic of Pacer discussion. "Hes got this funny way of moving into your knees," West said. "Were very conscious of that. We talk about making sure we protect our knees." Added Hibbert: "He has to do whatever he has to do to make sure his team wins, and thats fine. But Im going to protect myself when Im on the court." The fines are basically nominal given the salaries of NBA players. Stephenson makes just over $900,000 this season, while West makes $10 million and James makes about $17 million in playing salary, plus an estimated $40 million more in endorsements. "Five thousand dollars is a lot of money," West said. "I dont care how much money youre making." Steve Kerr, working the game as an analyst for TNT, said flopping has "been apparent throughout the series but I think it got worse" during Game 4. James was voted to the NBAs All-Defensive first team, but Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau accused him of flopping after a play during the Heats second-round series victory over the Bulls. The play with West came not long after James said flopping was "not even a bad thing, youre just trying to get the advantage." Kerr said flopping was "unbecoming of star players." "To me, flopping is sort of the territory of guys who are just trying to hang onto their position in the league and they have to find their way to be successful and productive somehow," he said in a phone interview before the penalties were announced. "So if Battier and (Tyler) Hansbrough are going to flop a little bit because thats how theyre going to impact the game right now, Im probably more willing to give them a pass than when I see David West and LeBron falling all over each other in the post, two of the best players in the league." Players were given a warning for a first offence during the regular season but are fined for the first flop in the post-season. The plays can be seen at nba.com/official. Cheap San Francisco Giants Jerseys China . Luis Suarezs double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast clubs impressive start to the season. Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home. Stitched Baseball Jerseys . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. http://www.cheapbaseballchina.com/cheap-toronto-blue-jays-jerseys-china_703l.html . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Cheap Philadelphia Phillies Jerseys China . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap Kansas City Royals Jerseys China . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Lewis Hamilton says he will come back stronger in 2017 after learning some valuable lessons this season.Hamilton missed out on title by five points to Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg this year, despite taking more wins and more pole positions over the course of the 21 races.Hamilton dropped points with MGU-H problems in qualifying at the Chinese and Russian Grands Prix as well as losing out on victory in Malaysia with an engine failure. However, he also lost points due to a series of poor starts -- an issue that was corrected later in the year after time spent with his engineers at the teams factory -- and a finish off the podium in Baku following a mistake in qualifying and an incorrect engine setting during the race.I learned a lot about myself this year, he said. I understood and found where there are weaknesses, which I can now improve for next year -- some I already did party way through the season.I read somewhere that Baku was a bad race through performance, but qualifying was the bad performance and in the race I was stuck with a setting that the team had set and I had no information of what it was. But otherwise there are definitely races where hindsight would have been a great thing -- I could have done this or I could haave done that and maybe I could have got a better start.ddddddddddddMaybe if Id done this I would have won, but thats not something that I try to do in a season, because in the heat of the moment you do the best you can. I won the last four races and I think I performed pretty well throughout the year to have the amount of wins I had.I won 10 races and had 12 pole positions, which, considering I didnt compete in three of the qualifying sessions, Im very very happy with. The goal next year is to try and up that, which is always going to be incredibly tough.In attempting to overcome some of the problems he faced, Hamilton said he had to dig deeper than ever before this season.I think I drive well every year, but I think I probably drove with more heart than I ever have done before. I was faced with a lot more challenges along the way - if you start first, fall back to eighth and have to fight back through.I had to dig deep, probably deeper than other years when I have started first and disappeared. I would say it has taken a lot more heart and a lot more courage to face the challenges and overcome them. ' ' '