Big, BIG difference between the two incidents. Diaw and Stoudamire (especially him) ran down the sideline to get close. Duncan basically stood up and took a step. And Bowen stepped out to pull Duncan back to the bench. The Duncan/Bowen thing was nothing. Duncan and Bowen crossed the sidelines, just like Diaw and Stoudemire. The NBA said they were following the rule due to precedence and that it was black and white. This is pretty darn black and white to me. The difference that I've heard is that the rule specifically states that you can't leave the bench area "during an altercation." The belief is that the league didn't consider this to be an altercation, therefore no punishment for Duncan or Bowen. And Duncan took like 2 steps, which I wouldn't think would be considered to be leaving the bench area, too.