The Associated Press

Kevin Love’s frustration with physical play and officiating have been apparent early and often this season.

Emotion got the best of him on Saturday night against the Rockets, and now he and the Minnesota Timberwolves have to pay the price: Love, his team’s leading scorer and rebounder, was suspended for two games by the NBA for "driving his foot into the upper body and face of the Rockets’ Luis Scola as Scola was lying on the floor."

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The play happened in the third quarter of Saturday’s victory over the Rockets after the two tangled while going for a rebound. As Love went to step over Scola, who a week earlier had thrown a ball off Love’s groin while trying to save it from going out of bounds, he looked down at the Rockets forward and stepped on him as he headed back up the court.

It marked the second time last week Love delivered a hard foul after not getting a call on the other end. He raked Pacers forward Danny Granger across the chest on Wednesday, touching off a small skirmish in a loss to Indiana.

Love apologized to Scola both after the game and in a statement issued by the team on Monday following the suspension, and said he has to do a better job handling his emotions.

"I don’t want to be known for that," Love said after practice. "I want to be known as a stand-up guy who happened to make a mistake with a size 19 shoe and just move on. So everybody knows there were no ill intentions there."

He missed Tuesday’s game against Sacramento and will miss Wednesday’s game at Memphis as the Timberwolves (12-12) look to climb above .500 for the first time this season.

Love is averaging 25.0 points and 13.7 rebounds per game and leads the NBA with 39.4 minutes per game. The All-Star forward was contrite on Monday, saying he thought the suspension from NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson "was warranted."

Around the association

Lakers • Los Angeles coach Mike Brown has been suspended one game without pay and fined $25,000 for making contact with a game official and failure to leave the court in a timely manner following his ejection in Saturday’s game.

Thunder • The Oklahoma City Thunder recalled forward Ryan Reid from the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League before Monday night’s game at Portland.

Reid, acquired by the Thunder the day of the 2010 draft, has yet to play in an NBA game.