NBA fines show worst offense is still leaving the bench

Butler and Marshall squared off Friday night after a foul that didn’t originally involve either one of them. Kevin Love fouled Zion Williamson and tried to catch him on the way down, but their teammates misread the action and started a brawl.

Afterward, Williamson explained that Love actually tried to catch him, but by then the fight was on.

Butler and Marshall were both ejected from Miami’s 106-95 win, and the NBA suspended both for one game without pay. But while the league has a certain amount of sympathy for players on the court defending their teammates, they’ll drop the hammer if you leave the bench and fight.

This is what happened with Miami’s Thomas Bryant and New Orleans’ Jose Alvarado. Both got three-game suspensions for leaving the bench and fighting. Miami’s Nikola Jovic didn’t fight anyone, but he got a game for stepping on the court at all.

That’s the lesson from Friday’s donnybrook: Instigating a fight is one thing, but ramping up the fight — especially from the bench — is a serious no-no.

The Heat and Pelicans could do well to study the behavior of Steph Curry from the same night when an altercation broke out in the final seconds and he sat motionless with a towel over his head.

He might not have looked tough, but unlike those Pelicans and Heat players, Curry won’t be missing a game down the stretch for a meaningless scuffle.