A Game 5 Without Amare. Tragic.

Well, the suspensions from the Suns-Spurs Game 4 finally came down last night, and one thing was assured: Nobody, probably not even the Spurs, is happy about it. Robert Horry, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw will all miss tonight's Game 5, which means that the Suns will be at a clear disadvantage because Bob Horry body-checked Steve Nash. As fans, we all lose, because we miss watching Stoudemire in a pivotal game, and Suns fans, well, they're losing their minds. Here's a wrapup of various views on the suspension from around this here Internets.

• True Hoop: "I guess the one [argument] that has all of us motivated is: because it means so much and because what they did was so harmless. All true, but that's an impossible standard to maintain consistently in the future. Who wants to decide who's harmless and who isn't? Who wants to say which games are really important next time?"

• 100 Percent Injury Rate: "If it's clear that the NBA doesn't care about the fans, likes to enforce a rule that makes NO sense, and has made a mockery of justice in this incident, then why even play the game? Robert Sarver, the current majority owner of the Suns, should tell David Stern to stick it where the sun don't shine and tell him the Suns won't play Game 5. I have no doubt that the people of Phoenix would rally around that cry seeing as they just wound up on the wrong side of one of the most uneven judgments in NBA history."

• Pounding The Rock (Spurs blog): "Horry loses his cool and arm checks The Great White Symbol. An inexcusable cheap shot that leads to the unfortunate suspension of two vital Suns players. And with that the litmus paper has been turned and there's no going back. There's no pointing at Baron Davis' elbow to the head of Derek Fisher and questioning his free pass from the masses, no remembrance of a Raja Bell clothesline. The Spurs are thugs. The series is tainted and the indelible dye has been cast upon the postseason. The only happy ending, the only way to clean this up is David casting down the Goliath and retaking his seemingly ill-gotten gains. No matter the outcome tonight, the Spurs will walk away losers."

Our favorite notion, though, is from a True Hoop reader: "By this logic, if James Jones had noticed that Duncan and Bowen had wandered on the court in the second quarter, he should have immediately decked Francisco Elson. There's your altercation. Mr. Commissioner! Presumably Jones, Duncan, and Bowen would have all been suspended for Game 5 — a big win for Phoenix." It would be incredibly fun to watch a team deploy this strategy.