Rockets' Howard will not face further punishment for striking Warriors' Bogut

The NBA decided not level further punishment against Dwight Howard for striking Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut in the face during Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday.

NBA President of Basketball Operations Rod Thorn said Howard's actions were unnecessary but not excessive, and that Howard was trying to remove himself from the situation.

"It was with the back of the hand, and open hand, and Howard was trying to extricate himself," Thorn told Jeff Zillgit of USA Today.

"Bogut had his arm over Howard's arm, trying to extricate himself. As he did, he flailed his arm backwards and hit Bogut in the face. My feeling was it unnecessary which comes under the guise of flagrant-1 but it was not unnecessary and excessive."

The incident in question can be seen below. Howard was assessed a flagrant-1, and now has three flagrant fouls through the playoffs, one away from an automatic one-game suspension.

Houston Rockets head coach Kevin McHale's characterization of Howard's incident mirrored Thorn's perspective on the matter.

"He just tried to get off a hold," McHale said, according to Reid Laymance of the Houston Chronicle. "The second foul always gets called. He swiped his arm back, it’s not like he turned on him. It’s been that way forever in this league. The second one always gets called."

Thorn's decision baffled his predecessor Stu Jackson.

The league's decision to not dole out additional punishment for Howard stands in stark contrast to the decision to eject Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford for dropping an elbow on Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova.

To that, Thorn offered up a rather weak rebuttal.