tlongII
04-09-2011, 01:49 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2011/04/canzano_lakers_wont_admit_it_b.html
http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonian/photo/2011/04/trail-blazers-vs-lakers-april-8-2011-31aa9d39f6546800.jpg
Lamar Odom fouls Gerald Wallace as he brings the ball up court Friday at the Rose Garden. But Ron Artest doesn't think it was a physical game.
The evidence was all over the visiting locker room at the Rose Garden on Friday night. Medical tape strewn on the floor. A bucket filled with ice water at the foot of Kobe Bryant's locker. A doctor, latex gloves on, applying ointment to Lamar Odom's floor burns.
The Lakers looked beat.
Pau Gasol dressed, then explained, "We have work to do." Coach Phil Jackson said, "I can't explain why we were lazy or didn't get back on defense." One of the veteran Lakers, still in the showers, dropped an expletive that rattled through the room. And a few feet away, Ron Artest slipped on a pair of brown shoes and called to the team trainer, "I need a bag of ice for the plane."
The Blazers hammered the Lakers 93-86. It was a chippy night. In part, because Portland led by as many as 24 points. Three technical fouls. Brandon Roy had tense words with both Bryant and Artest. Gerald Wallace tangled with Artest, throwing so many elbows and rumps in the key they looked like two men battling over a quarter in a telephone booth coin-return slot.
The Blazers didn't wilt. They didn't back down. This felt different. And that fight in Portland's heart became so obvious that the public address system played Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" coming out of a fourth-quarter timeout.
Except the Lakers claim they barely noticed.
"Physical?" Artest said, "I guess, maybe. I don't know. I'm a physical player so that just feels normal to me. If (Gerald Wallace) wants to feel good about that, good for him.
"The playoffs haven't even started yet."
So, um, Wallace vs. Artest II anyone?
Yeah. Me, too.
Because as Artest left the Rose Garden, I talked with him down a hallway about the possibility of drawing Portland in the first round, and also, what Friday's game might have signaled. Did he notice the extra fight? Was the Blazers' charged-up spirit as plain to Artest as it was the rest of us? Does the guy who bullied Portland out of the playoffs in Houston two seasons ago see a difference in their eyes?
"That out there? That was nothing to me."
Nothing? No growth? No difference? No Wallace-led and Roy-fueled refusal to back down to the defending champions? No message sent? Nothing?
"Nope."
Look around the NBA on Friday and what you find were technical fouls and an ejection in Boston. And Memphis slamming the door on Sacramento, hunting a better seed in the West. And so, yeah, the electricity inside the Rose Garden, and the Blazers looking like the aggressors all made perfect sense.
Portland sent a message. And it was this: "We're not the same ol' first-round patsy." The Rockets two seasons ago. The Suns last season. If it's the Lakers in 2011 for Portland, well, then it's going to feel like a cage match. The Blazers would be a long shot to win a series against Los Angeles, but not for lack of courage.
It made me want to see more of the Blazers and Lakers. And I suspect it made the Lakers want to see less of it.
Said Artest: "Naw, they weren't that tough or anything out there. I'm not trying to play around or be funny about it. I'm not even worried about them, or the playoffs. It's not the playoffs yet. That's another level of physical. We have three more games. I'm not worried about the playoffs now."
Now. Understand. The more you talk with Artest, the more you like him. He's interesting. And candid. And atypical in an NBA locker room. I'm not sure if he was waging psychological war or in denial or just being goofy. But of the things said in the Lakers locker room, nothing was more interesting than the resident tough guy announcing that the Blazers felt like flies at a picnic.
Even on a night when it was apparent that Portland beat the reigning champions to the punch, with LaMarcus Aldridge swatting four Lakers shots and Wallace refusing to be bullied and Andre Miller throwing alley-oop passes for dunks as if he hired an eye in the sky, Artest still wouldn't admit a thing.
"I'm super-physical," he said. "If they feel good for being tough guys, good for them. But that was nothing."
Later, when I asked about that bag of ice he requested for the plane ride home, Artest said, "I use it to put in my bottle of Gatorade."
I'm not buying it.
Nor should you.
http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonian/photo/2011/04/trail-blazers-vs-lakers-april-8-2011-31aa9d39f6546800.jpg
Lamar Odom fouls Gerald Wallace as he brings the ball up court Friday at the Rose Garden. But Ron Artest doesn't think it was a physical game.
The evidence was all over the visiting locker room at the Rose Garden on Friday night. Medical tape strewn on the floor. A bucket filled with ice water at the foot of Kobe Bryant's locker. A doctor, latex gloves on, applying ointment to Lamar Odom's floor burns.
The Lakers looked beat.
Pau Gasol dressed, then explained, "We have work to do." Coach Phil Jackson said, "I can't explain why we were lazy or didn't get back on defense." One of the veteran Lakers, still in the showers, dropped an expletive that rattled through the room. And a few feet away, Ron Artest slipped on a pair of brown shoes and called to the team trainer, "I need a bag of ice for the plane."
The Blazers hammered the Lakers 93-86. It was a chippy night. In part, because Portland led by as many as 24 points. Three technical fouls. Brandon Roy had tense words with both Bryant and Artest. Gerald Wallace tangled with Artest, throwing so many elbows and rumps in the key they looked like two men battling over a quarter in a telephone booth coin-return slot.
The Blazers didn't wilt. They didn't back down. This felt different. And that fight in Portland's heart became so obvious that the public address system played Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" coming out of a fourth-quarter timeout.
Except the Lakers claim they barely noticed.
"Physical?" Artest said, "I guess, maybe. I don't know. I'm a physical player so that just feels normal to me. If (Gerald Wallace) wants to feel good about that, good for him.
"The playoffs haven't even started yet."
So, um, Wallace vs. Artest II anyone?
Yeah. Me, too.
Because as Artest left the Rose Garden, I talked with him down a hallway about the possibility of drawing Portland in the first round, and also, what Friday's game might have signaled. Did he notice the extra fight? Was the Blazers' charged-up spirit as plain to Artest as it was the rest of us? Does the guy who bullied Portland out of the playoffs in Houston two seasons ago see a difference in their eyes?
"That out there? That was nothing to me."
Nothing? No growth? No difference? No Wallace-led and Roy-fueled refusal to back down to the defending champions? No message sent? Nothing?
"Nope."
Look around the NBA on Friday and what you find were technical fouls and an ejection in Boston. And Memphis slamming the door on Sacramento, hunting a better seed in the West. And so, yeah, the electricity inside the Rose Garden, and the Blazers looking like the aggressors all made perfect sense.
Portland sent a message. And it was this: "We're not the same ol' first-round patsy." The Rockets two seasons ago. The Suns last season. If it's the Lakers in 2011 for Portland, well, then it's going to feel like a cage match. The Blazers would be a long shot to win a series against Los Angeles, but not for lack of courage.
It made me want to see more of the Blazers and Lakers. And I suspect it made the Lakers want to see less of it.
Said Artest: "Naw, they weren't that tough or anything out there. I'm not trying to play around or be funny about it. I'm not even worried about them, or the playoffs. It's not the playoffs yet. That's another level of physical. We have three more games. I'm not worried about the playoffs now."
Now. Understand. The more you talk with Artest, the more you like him. He's interesting. And candid. And atypical in an NBA locker room. I'm not sure if he was waging psychological war or in denial or just being goofy. But of the things said in the Lakers locker room, nothing was more interesting than the resident tough guy announcing that the Blazers felt like flies at a picnic.
Even on a night when it was apparent that Portland beat the reigning champions to the punch, with LaMarcus Aldridge swatting four Lakers shots and Wallace refusing to be bullied and Andre Miller throwing alley-oop passes for dunks as if he hired an eye in the sky, Artest still wouldn't admit a thing.
"I'm super-physical," he said. "If they feel good for being tough guys, good for them. But that was nothing."
Later, when I asked about that bag of ice he requested for the plane ride home, Artest said, "I use it to put in my bottle of Gatorade."
I'm not buying it.
Nor should you.