Rockets' Kevin McHale to Dwight Howard: 'Hit them first' in Game 5

When Kevin McHale played in the NBA in the 1980s, it was a rougher game. For one thing, justice was dished out on the court rather than via league e-mail.

The onetime power forward - who played next to Larry Bird - and current Rockets coach has imparted some wisdom from that era to his Houston Rockets center, Dwight Howard.

"Hit them first."

That's McHale's response to the tussle Howard had with Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut in Monday's Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Howard was called for a flagrant-1 after hitting Bogut in the face with a retaliatory backhand. After speculation the foul could be upgraded and Howard possibly suspended for an elimination game, the call held.

There's a legitimate method to McHale's madness however.

"(The refs) always call the second one," the Houston coach told reporters Wednesday to explain his strike-first mentality. Bogut struck Howard under the basket, and Howard replied with the backhand.

"(In the old days) the referee would say 'if you hold him he’s gonna hit you in the head,' and then they'd quit holding you and you'd quit hitting them in the head," McHale said.

McHale, taking the crotchety "in my day" position, also slammed the NBA rule that could have got Howard suspended - where accrued flagrant fouls throughout the postseason can result in suspensions, regardless of which series they occur in.

"Those rules are ridiculous," McHale said. "I don’t know who came up with those rules but you should just decide how many flagrants or how many technicals per series is acceptable - one, two, three, nine, I don’t know - and then every series it starts off with zero."