NBA suspends Utah’s Trevor Booker for striking Roy Hibbert

On Friday, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, Kiki VanDeWeghe, announced the suspension of Utah Jazz forward Trevor Booker for one game without pay as punishment for striking center Roy Hibbert “with an open hand to the head.”

While the incident occurred on Tuesday in the Lakers’ preseason 117-114 overtime loss to the Jazz in Hawaii, Booker will serve his suspension on Utah’s regular-season opener on Oct. 28 against the Detroit Pistons.

Booker was first assessed a technical foul for shoving Lakers forward Julius Randle midway through the third period. Hibbert, looking out for his younger teammate, approached Booker aggressively to express his displeasure. Booker’s response was to slap Hibbert on the head.

Hibbert and Booker were both given technical fouls, the second of which triggered an automatic ejection for Booker.

The Lakers have high hopes that Randle will eventually become a star as their starting power forward and that Hibbert will re-sign to a multiyear deal after the coming season.

To that end, the Lakers need to see that Hibbert and Randle complement each other well with Hibbert’s defensive ability and Randle’s emerging offensive skill set.

On Tuesday, Hibbert took a step toward building that chemistry by standing up for his teammate and confronting Booker.

In 2014, the Lakers’ Nick Young was ejected from a game for throwing a punch in a skirmish against center Alex Len and the Phoenix Suns.

Young was miffed that none of his teammates came to his defense.

“What I’m mad about is just it was one on five,” said Young after that game. “I felt like if somebody would have got in the middle, it wouldn’t have escalated that much.”

Hibbert’s gesture on Tuesday won’t show in the box score of an otherwise meaningless preseason game, but it was an important moment of team-building for a franchise that has struggled to achieve a unified identity over the past few seasons.

Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.