That decision rested in the hands of Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations. And after spending Friday deliberating, VanDeWeghe’s decision was announced Saturday: Oubre would be suspended for one game, meaning he’ll sit out Sunday’s Game 4 of this best-of-seven series.

“Kelly was suspended, really, for charging an opponent, and making forceful and unwarranted contact during a dead-ball situation,” VanDeWeghe told The Washington Post in a phone interview Saturday afternoon. “It was a non-basketball play, it was a very dangerous play, and you can’t retaliate in that type of manner.”

VanDeWeghe, a two-time all-star as a player and an executive with several teams before transitioning to the league office, serves as the league’s disciplinarian in situations such as the one involving Oubre and Olynyk.

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In deciding how to come up with decisions for what the proper level of discipline should be, or if any additional discipline need be applied at all, VanDeWeghe utilizes a variety of tools to make his decision, including studying every possible replay angle, speaking to those involved and studying comparable plays from the past and what discipline each of them received.

Part of that decision-making process also included examining the two screens Olynyk set on Oubre leading up to the altercation. But VanDeWeghe said that, despite Oubre’s contention that part of his frustration with Olynyk came from him being struck in the head multiple times, players do not have the freedom to take matters into their own hands.

So now Oubre will watch Sunday’s game from the sidelines, and will be the first player suspended for a game during this postseason.

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“First of all, you have to look at that moment and what happened,” VanDeWeghe said. “We go back and review all plays, and I happen to go back and review them right away postgame. I thought that the screens on Olynyk, and I think you’re referring to two screens, were properly called. Both were hard picks, and he got called for an offensive foul on the one right before the incident.

“Second, players don’t have free rein to retaliate in this manner for any reason. And I have to repeat: It was dangerous, it was intentional, non-basketball during dead ball, and discipline was really necessary, and based on comps, exactly what was necessary.”

Still, VanDeWeghe did say that he examined the screens set by Olynyk to see if anything the Celtics big man did merited any additional discipline. But, after looking at them, he decided that wasn’t necessary.

“No, there wasn’t,” VanDeWeghe said. “I looked at those plays, I looked at them with the referees, consulted with the replay center, looked at a bunch of different angles.

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“They were hard screens and the offensive foul was proper [amount of discipline] in this situation.”

The Oubre-Olynyk incident is just the latest in a series of run-ins these two teams have experienced dating back to the regular season. So it’s come as little surprise that tempers have flared between them in the crucible of a seven-game playoff series, with a trip to the Eastern Conference finals on the line for the victor.

But while some may look at a decision such as this as a possible message to both teams to try and take some of the edge out of an already passionate postseason series, VanDeWeghe said that wasn’t the case. Instead, it simply a matter of looking at Oubre’s actions in the moment and determining the correct course of action.

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And, after doing so, the decision was clear: make Oubre watch Sunday’s game in street clothes.

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“It’s really a process, looking through this stuff,” VanDeWeghe said, “and you do try and take context into account. But you look at each individual [situations] against the rules and you look at comparables, you go back through history.

“I looked at a bunch of different plays — some similar, some not as similar … you try and get the comparables, you try and find out what exactly was done in each situation. You interview everybody. It’s really quite a process that we go through.

“Listen, these guys, both teams, they’re playing their hearts out. They’re playing really hard basketball here. So it’s hard, playoff basketball.”