Reports: NBA Rescinds Technical Foul on Kendrick Perkins, Making Him Eligible to Play Game 6; Paul Pierce Receives a Flagrant

The NBA has reviewed Game 5 between the Orlando Magic and the Boston Celtics and made some changes to foul rulings, reports Shannon J. Owens of the Orlando Sentinel, Paul Flannery of WEEI, and others.

The most significant adjustment as the rescinding of Celtics center Kendrick Perkins' second technical foul, which prompted his ejection in the first half of the game. Upset with a foul call, Perkins began to curse loudly and wave his arms in frustration while walking away from referee Eddie F. Rush, who rang him up for the technical anyway. Because the technical was Perkins' 7th of the playoffs, he would have drawn a one-game-suspension had the league not reverse the call. Which it did. Perkins will thus be eligible to play in Game 6 tomorrow night.

Also worth noting: the league upgraded a personal foul Celtics small forward Paul Pierce committed on Magic two-guard J.J. Redick early in the fourth quarter to a flagrant one foul. Redick baited Pierce into jumping into him while shooting, and as Redick fell to the floor, Pierce gave him a bit of an extra shove in frustration.

For some interesting perspective on Perkins' technical situation, I recommend reading Henry Abbott and Zach Lowe today. In general, I recommend reading those guys every day, on any topic, but I quite enjoyed what they had to say about Perkins. Abbott argues that the league shouldn't need a day and a half to review a five-second play, and the fact that the game was close when Perkins was in illustrates how costly his loss proved to be. Meanwhile, Lowe delves into the subject of Perkins' reputation for complaining, and how it might have affected his ejection.