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Seven suspensions or less?

With Steve Nash back from his one-game suspension and Matt Barnes completing his two-game sentence Sunday night, the Suns might have a new worry after Shaquille O’Neal’s flagrant 2 foul on Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey and ejection in the second quarter of Sunday’s win over the Pistons.

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With the Suns leading 48-33 and in the midst of a dominant quarter, O’Neal went up aggressively to block Stuckey’s drive to the basket with both hands. The two players collided and Stuckey landed chest-first and face-second on the floor. He remained prone on the court while officials — referee Ken Mauer called a flagrant 2 foul initially — watched video of the play and upheld the decision.

“We got together and felt — first of all, a flagrant 2 had to have a windup and follow-through (motion) and not only be unnecessary, but we feel it’s excessive,” Mauer told a pool reporter after the game. “We thought it followed all three of those. We felt he winded up. He hit him. Then he pulled him down — that’s a follow-through. We felt after reviewing it that it was more than necessary. We felt it was excessive.

“(Now) it goes to the league, and they do whatever.”

O’Neal, who was fined $35,000 for his role in the skirmish with Houston on Wednesday that resulted in suspensions to Nash and Barnes, said he was going for the ball and didn’t do anything that should result in further action by the league.

And he used everything short of props and an overhead projector to state his case.

“The laws of physics state that a body in motion stays in motion,” O’Neal theorized.

“And if you have two objects that meet in the air, the smaller object is going to fall much harder at the same rate of speed it was going.”

Professor O’Neal then tried laymen’s terms. “I’ve never been the type of player to take anyone out. I was going for the ball. (Stuckey) fell, and he added a little bit at the end.

The referees looked at how he fell, I think. Any time you come in there out of control like that and you run into a brick wall, you’re going to get that effect.”

Suns coach Terry Porter concurred. “Not to downplay what happened, the young man got hit pretty hard … (but) sometimes in those situations, the fall may look worse than the contact was.”