duncan228
05-08-2009, 02:23 PM
Check out the Kobe/Battier exchange in the tunnel after the game.
Lakers prove they're tough enough (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bryant-artest-battier-2396745-scola-game)
Ding column: No matter who started it, the Lakers finish off Rockets.
Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
LOS ANGELES- If Derek Fisher's bodycheck on Luis Scola doesn't draw an NBA suspension, Jack Nicholson's obscene gesture toward referee Bill Spooner certainly should.
Beyond that, everything else was good, not-totally-clean-but-close-enough fun that made Game 2 between the Lakers and Rockets great theater.
When co-captain Fisher and superfan Nicholson weren't stoking it, the other Lakers' leaders had their hands in the fire: Kobe Bryant made it personal with Shane Battier and then physical with Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom was certainly a primary pot-stirrer with his contentious lurking near Scola long before Fisher and Artest ever got ejected.
But when and where did it all start?
Even before Game 2 began, the Rockets already tried to draw attention to what Bryant did in the opener: plowing through Battier in the aftermath of a loose-ball scrum to the point that Houston argued to league officials that Bryant had elbowed and kneed Battier on purpose. Now that Bryant threw that elbow Wednesday night back at Artest's throat in an attempt to stop Artest from illegally shoving him out of rebounding position, the Rockets can remind anew that Bryant has been suspended previously for elbowing Mike Miller (in the throat), Manu Ginobili and Marko Jaric.
Bryant can counter by saying Artest really started it back in March, when the issue of shots to the throat began with Artest raising a forearm to Bryant's neck in threatening fashion. What few know is that when Bryant came back into this game with 8:58 left in the game to guard Artest, the two immediately had an exchange rooted in Artest laying more forearms on Bryant, albeit in the context of trying to get position. In response, Bryant swatted Artest's arm down twice and complained to referee Joey Crawford that Artest must not be permitted to put his forearm anywhere near Bryant's throat.
If you go back to last May, you can see Bryant sitting down for Artest to conduct a fawning, rather weird interview for Fox Sports in which Artest declares himself a Bryant fan and notes: "You are one person that never backs down." Perhaps Artest is determined in this series to show that he can match his idol Bryant's focus, which Artest nearly has … except for losing it in the wake of Bryant's last elbow.
As far as abuse goes, though, Bryant has actually given Battier much worse. Bryant was insultingly shaking his head after many of shots he hit over Battier, repeatedly declaring that Battier can't guard him. At one timeout early in the game, Bryant stared over at Battier, continuously shaking his head even though Battier wasn't even looking back. Crawford finally gave Bryant a technical foul midway through the fourth for doing it one too many times.
It's a mind game that Battier is desperately trying not to lose. You could see that much in a back corridor of Staples Center after the game, when Bryant and Battier just happened to cross paths out of uniform. Bryant was walking toward his postgame news conference just as Battier was exiting Houston's locker room.
Bryant made a point to deliver the first blow, reaching out with his left hand to pat Battier on the chest. Bryant nodded and said flatly, without breaking stride: "Way to battle …" even as both of them knew how thoroughly Bryant had dominated. Battier turned his head back to respond with something to the effect of "You know I always will," but this time Bryant wasn't even bothering to look back at him.
So maybe Bryant was starting something– or maybe he just set a much-needed tone for his team. The same goes for Fisher, who definitely made the biggest singular impact of the night by delivering such a mighty blow that somewhere Scola's hair stylist was cringing.
But Fisher could point to Houston's side as having started it in both games, too.
In the second quarter of Game 1, Fisher took clear exception to Houston's Brent Barry pulling Fisher down to the floor in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous way to end a play wherein Barry had already been whistled for a foul. In Game 2, Fisher watched Scola try just about the same thing to Odom, hacking him and then grabbing him by the jersey in an attempt to pull him down after the whistle.
Even before Fisher hammered Scola at the other end of the court, Luke Walton had immediately stepped to Scola to go chest-to-chest in Odom's defense – with Walton, Scola and Odom all drawing technicals.
"I felt like it was a foul and a foul," Odom said later of Scola's play.
Who was really the instigator of all that? Odom didn't much like Scola hitting a right-handed hook shot while leading with his left elbow with 5:01 left in the third – and was moved to get in Scola's face and trail after him for a long time after blocking Scola's shot on the next Houston possession.
Walton cryptically argued his team's side this way: "We felt like there were some late elbows being thrown."
And Odom offered this evaluation of Scola: "A lot of people who like to hit first, when you retaliate, they like to show they got hit. I'm just going to say he played hard and he's a competitor, and I'll just kind of leave it at that, you know what I'm sayin'?"
Odom did have a few last words, however, as he neared his car a long time after the wild game was over: "Luke got my back. That's important."
So when we ask where and when all this stuff with the Rockets really, truly started, there is but one answer:
In Boston, last June.
"One of the reasons we lost last year in the (NBA) Finals is we weren't physical enough," Walton said. "They were pushing us around and we didn't push back. We want to make sure that's not the reason we lose this year."
Lakers prove they're tough enough (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bryant-artest-battier-2396745-scola-game)
Ding column: No matter who started it, the Lakers finish off Rockets.
Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
LOS ANGELES- If Derek Fisher's bodycheck on Luis Scola doesn't draw an NBA suspension, Jack Nicholson's obscene gesture toward referee Bill Spooner certainly should.
Beyond that, everything else was good, not-totally-clean-but-close-enough fun that made Game 2 between the Lakers and Rockets great theater.
When co-captain Fisher and superfan Nicholson weren't stoking it, the other Lakers' leaders had their hands in the fire: Kobe Bryant made it personal with Shane Battier and then physical with Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom was certainly a primary pot-stirrer with his contentious lurking near Scola long before Fisher and Artest ever got ejected.
But when and where did it all start?
Even before Game 2 began, the Rockets already tried to draw attention to what Bryant did in the opener: plowing through Battier in the aftermath of a loose-ball scrum to the point that Houston argued to league officials that Bryant had elbowed and kneed Battier on purpose. Now that Bryant threw that elbow Wednesday night back at Artest's throat in an attempt to stop Artest from illegally shoving him out of rebounding position, the Rockets can remind anew that Bryant has been suspended previously for elbowing Mike Miller (in the throat), Manu Ginobili and Marko Jaric.
Bryant can counter by saying Artest really started it back in March, when the issue of shots to the throat began with Artest raising a forearm to Bryant's neck in threatening fashion. What few know is that when Bryant came back into this game with 8:58 left in the game to guard Artest, the two immediately had an exchange rooted in Artest laying more forearms on Bryant, albeit in the context of trying to get position. In response, Bryant swatted Artest's arm down twice and complained to referee Joey Crawford that Artest must not be permitted to put his forearm anywhere near Bryant's throat.
If you go back to last May, you can see Bryant sitting down for Artest to conduct a fawning, rather weird interview for Fox Sports in which Artest declares himself a Bryant fan and notes: "You are one person that never backs down." Perhaps Artest is determined in this series to show that he can match his idol Bryant's focus, which Artest nearly has … except for losing it in the wake of Bryant's last elbow.
As far as abuse goes, though, Bryant has actually given Battier much worse. Bryant was insultingly shaking his head after many of shots he hit over Battier, repeatedly declaring that Battier can't guard him. At one timeout early in the game, Bryant stared over at Battier, continuously shaking his head even though Battier wasn't even looking back. Crawford finally gave Bryant a technical foul midway through the fourth for doing it one too many times.
It's a mind game that Battier is desperately trying not to lose. You could see that much in a back corridor of Staples Center after the game, when Bryant and Battier just happened to cross paths out of uniform. Bryant was walking toward his postgame news conference just as Battier was exiting Houston's locker room.
Bryant made a point to deliver the first blow, reaching out with his left hand to pat Battier on the chest. Bryant nodded and said flatly, without breaking stride: "Way to battle …" even as both of them knew how thoroughly Bryant had dominated. Battier turned his head back to respond with something to the effect of "You know I always will," but this time Bryant wasn't even bothering to look back at him.
So maybe Bryant was starting something– or maybe he just set a much-needed tone for his team. The same goes for Fisher, who definitely made the biggest singular impact of the night by delivering such a mighty blow that somewhere Scola's hair stylist was cringing.
But Fisher could point to Houston's side as having started it in both games, too.
In the second quarter of Game 1, Fisher took clear exception to Houston's Brent Barry pulling Fisher down to the floor in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous way to end a play wherein Barry had already been whistled for a foul. In Game 2, Fisher watched Scola try just about the same thing to Odom, hacking him and then grabbing him by the jersey in an attempt to pull him down after the whistle.
Even before Fisher hammered Scola at the other end of the court, Luke Walton had immediately stepped to Scola to go chest-to-chest in Odom's defense – with Walton, Scola and Odom all drawing technicals.
"I felt like it was a foul and a foul," Odom said later of Scola's play.
Who was really the instigator of all that? Odom didn't much like Scola hitting a right-handed hook shot while leading with his left elbow with 5:01 left in the third – and was moved to get in Scola's face and trail after him for a long time after blocking Scola's shot on the next Houston possession.
Walton cryptically argued his team's side this way: "We felt like there were some late elbows being thrown."
And Odom offered this evaluation of Scola: "A lot of people who like to hit first, when you retaliate, they like to show they got hit. I'm just going to say he played hard and he's a competitor, and I'll just kind of leave it at that, you know what I'm sayin'?"
Odom did have a few last words, however, as he neared his car a long time after the wild game was over: "Luke got my back. That's important."
So when we ask where and when all this stuff with the Rockets really, truly started, there is but one answer:
In Boston, last June.
"One of the reasons we lost last year in the (NBA) Finals is we weren't physical enough," Walton said. "They were pushing us around and we didn't push back. We want to make sure that's not the reason we lose this year."