The league has decided to bring a bit of the hammer down in giving Andrew Bynum a two game suspension as a result of his flagrant foul on Michael Beasley in Friday night's game. Is it too harsh? I don't really care that much. Drew deserved some form of punishment for the foul, and when you take into consideration the fact that Drew made absolutely no play on the ball whatsoever, the only logical conclusion is that the act was pre-meditated, in the sense that Drew knew what he was doing, and did it anyway. This was not a hard foul, it was a cheap shot, and sometimes you have to be able to recognize that in your own people. Like Dex said in the recap, it doesn't make him a horrible person or anything, but at this point I think we all know that Drew has a bit of a mean streak.
My biggest problem in all this is the timing. Not getting word of the suspension until about seven hours before the game is rough. This changes the game plan for tonight's contest with the Blazers significantly, because the Lakers have two different strategies for with and without Drew. No doubt the suspension didn't come as much of a surprise, and the coaches probably prepared the guys to go both ways, but not finding out you are down one big until after all the pre game meetings, practices and walkthroughs is a disadvantage that, while not exactly major, also wasn't exactly necessary. The league could just as easily have made this decision by last night, and then we, the coaches, and the perpetrator himself, would really have no right to complain.