Amar'e has tech rescinded, avoids suspension

Amar'e Stoudemire's status for Sunday's game against the Pacers is safe.

The NBA rescinded the double technical fouls called on Stoudemire and Mavericks center Brendan Haywood in the second quarter of the Knicks' 127-109 loss at Dallas on Thursday. Referee Bennett Salvatore hit both players with technicals after they got tangled up battling for a rebound.

It would have been Stoudemire's 16th technical foul of the season, which results in an automatic one-game suspension. Stoudemire said after the game that he expected the league would overturn the call. He and Haywood, who laughed about their very minor incident, were quick to make an appeal to Salvatore, a veteran official, admitted to him on the court that he may have overreacted.

"[Salvatore] pretty much agreed it wasn't really that bad," Stoudemire said. "Me and Brendan are good friends and we showed on the court that there really wasn't nothing from a controversy standpoint from that play."

After he was whistled for his 15th technical foul in the Feb. 23 win over the Bucks, Stoudemire has been extremely careful about picking up his 16th technical because of the suspension that comes with it. The Knicks, who are pushing to clinch their first playoff berth in seven years, can ill afford to lose their all-star power forward for a game.

Stoudemire's total is one shy of Dwight Howard's league-leading 16 techs. He served his one-game suspension last Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Knicks have two other players among the top six in the league and both happen to be the team's other two stars, Carmelo Anthony (12) and Chauncey Billups (10).