Suns-Spurs ruling shows double standard is at play

	Robert Horry (left) drew a two-game suspension, while Amare Stoudemire (right) earned a one-game ban. AP
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SAN ANTONIO -- Phoenix won 54 games last year with Boris Diaw filling in for Amaré Stoudemire, and 61 this season with Stoudemire reclaiming those minutes. They're used to missing one or the other, but how can the Suns win Game 5 Wednesday in the absence of both of them?

It's a regrettable question in advance of the most important game this season.

Something is wrong here. One month ago commissioner David Stern was suspending referee Joey Crawford to protect the integrity of the game -- and now that integrity is in question because of judgments by the commissioner's office.

Explain this one: Robert Horry receives a two-game suspension for hip-checking Steve Nash into the boards at the end of Game 4 Monday. If that's the standard, then why does Bruce Bowen receive no suspension for kicking Stoudemire's heel or kneeing Nash in the groin over the previous two games? And how does Golden State's Baron Davis go unsuspended for taking out Utah's Derek Fisher when they collided during a dead ball near the end of Game 4 in their Western semifinal?

At this crucial time of year the league should have a uniform policy on suspensions. Given the lax standard applied previously to Bowen and Davis, it now appears as though Horry was suspended in order to balance the one-game penalties to Stoudemire and Diaw for leaving their bench after the foul on Nash.

It looks very much as if the league is concerned more about the appearance of things than the principle.

If they could just get the principle right, they wouldn't have to worry so much about the appearance.

The Suns can complain about a double standard too: They can ask why the rules are strictly applied to Diaw for half-heartedly taking a few steps from the bench, yet the same book isn't being thrown at Davis for his role in what was arguably the uglier -- but less-noticed -- incident.

These fickle postseason judgments are altogether more harmful to the league than anything Crawford did in an otherwise meaningless game at the end of the regular season.

There will always be some complaints about league rulings on subjective matters. But in these cases any impartial observer can see that the rules aren't being interpreted uniformly, and this is after league officials have had hours to review videotapes of all of the relevant cases -- far more time than Crawford or his fellow referees are given to make their judgment calls.

Which leaves us pointing out the obvious inequities when we should instead be focusing on the biggest game of the year.

The answer to the original question -- how can Phoenix overcome this penalty? -- is that Steve Nash must run. The Suns evened their Western semifinal at 2-2 on San Antonio's floor while playing at the Spurs' restrictive pace, but that won't work this time.

This series has been all about Phoenix since Nash ran nose-first into Tony Parker in the fourth quarter as Game 1 bled away. We know how good the Spurs are -- it will be no surprise should they go on to win their third championship in five years -- but we still don't know how good the Suns can be. Taking good and evil out of it: The Spurs are the mountain that must be conquered, and Nash is Frodo.