[BSPN] Lakers-Rockets: Let's Get Ready To Rumble

I saw this posted in the Post-Game thread (credit to DwangBoy), but this deserves it's own thread.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-090507

LOS ANGELES -- Flip the old NBA adage: This Lakers-Rockets series has really started now that the home team won a game.

Game 2 had a full menu of items, including a Kobe Bryant 40-point scoring outburst, a Ron Artest Ron-Ron outburst, disappearing 7-footers, and enough flagrant and technical fouls and ejections to submit a double-DVD for Stu Jackson to review. (And that doesn't even include the Houston player sent to the locker room by his own coach or the official cursed out by Jack Nicholson .)

The Lakers' 111-98 victory evened the series at a game apiece, and now there's a whole Red Cross bank's worth of bad blood.

Instead of coaching adjustments, the next moves belong to Jackson, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations who attended the game at Staples Center. He will have a busy day on his hands when he gets off his redeye flight back to New York.

Most significant is an elbow Bryant threw that caught Artest in the throat as they were jockeying for position under the basket. The NBA rulebook states that a player must be ejected for "an elbow foul which makes contact above shoulder level." By the standard that's been set in these playoffs, Bryant should be suspended. Orlando's Dwight Howard was when he elbowed Philadelphia's Samuel Dalembert in the head. Superstar or not, the head and neck have been deemed off-limits for elbows. (The lightest tap of the playoffs, Rafer Alston's slap upside Eddie House's head in the Magic-Celtics game Wednesday night, could also fall in this category.)

Not only was Bryant not ejected, he wasn't called for a foul on the play. Artest was.

Feeling that justice wasn't served, Artest took some vigilante action, running across the court to Bryant, letting Bryant know that Artest is not to be, uh, messed with. It was probably more about planting a seed that Artest might just go off in Game 3, that next time there could be dire consequences.

"I was hoping the referees would tell him to stop, but then nobody told him to stop, so I had to tell him to stop," Artest said.

Bryant wanted no part of Artest. He raised his hands and looked away, afterward claiming to not even have heard Artest.

Kobe's explanation for the play: "We were both fighting for position. He was shoving me under the basket. I was just trying to establish position. It wasn't malicious at all."

Artest might get fined but won't be suspended. His ejection was more a response to the escalating tension in the game and an attempt to get it under control. Viewed on a TV screen in an office a continent away, it won't warrant further punishment.

The reason Artest got tossed was because the stakes were higher after Derek Fisher's flagrant 2 foul for delivering a hockey-style check to Luis Scola as Scola ran up to set a back screen. Flagrant 2 fouls result in an automatic ejection, plus review to determine if a suspension is warranted.

The explanation put forth by Fisher and advocated by Phil Jackson was that Fisher just wanted to fight through the screen and it looked worse because Scola stopped short of where Fisher expected him to be.

Uh-uh. We haven't seen someone take so long to load up since people were fighting with muskets. But what could keep Fisher in the lineup for Game 3 was that Fisher hit Scola square in the chest -- below the shoulders. It's similar to the justification for not suspending Rajon Rondo for his roller-derby toss of Kirk Hinrich into the scorer's table.

The Fisher foul followed some chatter between Lamar Odom and Scola, after Scola fouled Odom on a drive, with Luke Walton adding some commentary as well. Official Joey Crawford dished out technical fouls to all three.

These were the Lakers as we haven't seen them in these playoffs. They were edgy, with an attitude, fueled by trailing a series for the first time and people questioning their championship testiness. This was the response Bryant wanted to see.

"It's good for us," Bryant said. "You have a challenge here in front of you. You want to be champions, you have to respond to it."

He took it upon himself to take out his frustrations on Shane Battier, lighting up from the beginning and making 16 of 27 shots overall. After almost every basket he yelled to the fans, to Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins, or to Battier himself that "He can't guard me."

Finally, in the fourth quarter, that earned him a technical foul.

Nicholson escaped without punishment when he cursed and made a lewd gesture at official Bill Spooner. But Houston's Von Wafer wasn't so lucky, getting dismissed for something he said to Rockets coach Rick Adelman on the bench.

Whatever ticked off Wafer, he can't be as frustrated as Lakers big man Andrew Bynum, who started in Game 1, but in Game 2 lost his spot to Lamar Odom for the second consecutive series, then wound up playing only eight minutes.

Bryant's 15 first-quarter points staked the Lakers to a 39-25 lead, but it dwindled to a six-point advantage while Bynum was on the floor to start the second quarter, and by halftime the score was tied at 57.

But Bryant poured in another 12 in the third quarter as the Lakers regained control. He easily won the superstar battle on a night Yao Ming scored only 12 points. The Lakers took him out with more fronting, and he took himself out with five personal fouls.

And the Lakers won the decision on the night the series took on a decidedly nastier tone.

"They're getting hammered by their media for not being tough enough," Battier said. "I guess they wanted to come out and show they're tough guys, making some plays like that. That's their mind frame."

Fine, Artest seemed to say. Be that way.

"We're naturally tough," he said. "We're naturally like that."

The Rockets leave with the split -- or should we say split decision?

Round 3 -- er, Game 3 -- is Friday in Houston.

"This one looks like it's shaping into a good, physical series," Bryant said. "It's fun, '80s style."

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I hope if the Dwight Howard elbow suspension warrants Kobe a suspension. But I highly doubt it.

Did anyone see the Jack Nicholson fiasco? That was weird...

 

Crap, my bad....didn't see that thread. Lock it up...