League checks out Garnett/Bogut incident

The NBA is looking into a brief confrontation between the Celtics' Kevin Garnett and the Bucks' Andrew Bogut during Saturday night's game, and there is the possibility for further penalties, according to a report by ESPN.com's Marc Stein this afternoon.

The league office confirmed to Stein that it planned to investigate the incident today. Any fines or suspensions would be announced before both teams play again Tuesday night.

The incident happened during the fourth quarter of the Celtics' 102-97 overtime victory at Milwaukee. Bogut's left arm struck Garnett's mouth after the Bucks center drew a shooting foul near the basket. Garnett responded by slapping at Bogut, appearing to hit him in the forehead. Both players were assessed technical fouls, and Bogut was ejected because it was his second technical of the game.

Stein says there is a possibility of a suspension for both players, writing:

Contact above the shoulders is typically automatic suspension territory, but it remains to be seen how the league will respond given that neither player threw what could be classified as a punch.

. . . But the league has issued one-game suspensions -- most notably to Kobe Bryant in a January 2007 incident involving San Antonio's Manu Ginobili -- in such cases. For the past few seasons, players have been warned during each team's annual preseason seminar with NBA referees that they will be responsible for any contact with their elbows, intentional or not.