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Dont think too hard Mike, you'll hurt yourself.
Jackson says D'Antoni will calm down
He says the Suns coach eventually will understand the timeout in question.
By CURTIS ZUPKE
The Orange County Register
Comments 0| Recommend 3
EL SEGUNDO -- First there was Raja Bell vs. Kobe Bryant. Now is it Mike D'Antoni vs. Phil Jackson?
The Phoenix Suns have dominated the Lakers too much over the past two seasons to call it a true rivalry, but the friction level between the two teams seemed to reach another level Friday night.
Jackson was not aware of the harsh remarks that D'Antoni had about Jackson's fourth-quarter timeout until informed by the media Saturday. Jackson repeated his original explanation that he was simply burning a timeout to avoid TV-mandated ones later.
"When he thinks it over he'll find out that it wasn't as severe as he thought it was," Jackson said. "He didn't understand what I was doing. He had no concept of what was going on. He'll think about it and understand."
D'Antoni was demonstratively irritated when Jackson called timeout with 4:45 remaining and the Lakers ahead, 111-78. Jackson said that he wanted to get the timeouts out of the way to allow the game to finish smoothly without ESPN-mandated timeouts.
"I thought he disrespected our players," D'Antoni told reporters afterward. "But he likes to play mind games, and that's fine. He might want to try and do it in playoff time when we bust them every time."
Was Jackson surprised at the emotion that D'Antoni expressed?
"It gave me perhaps a better understanding of him," Jackson said. "His immediate response was that he thought it was about him."
Jackson said he won't contact D'Antoni to clear up the misunderstanding.
"He's got to figure that out on his own," he said.
The teams have displayed disgust for each other since the 2006 playoffs, when Suns guard Bell was suspended after he threw Bryant to the floor in a blowout victory by Phoenix in Game 5.
This week Bryant said that Phoenix, which has eliminated the Lakers from the postseason the past two seasons, has "really gotten under our skin."
Said Luke Walton about D'Antoni, "We're looking to move on and get better. I'm not really concerned about anything negative he had to say."
VLAD COMES ALIVE
Tuesday marked the first time that Vladimir Radmanovic led the team in scoring (19 points), but he didn't view it as a redemptive moment.
"I'm just trying to have a good year," he said. "I'm trying to help this team as much as I can and do all the things I was dealt for."
Radmanovic is under scrutiny after his first season under a five-year, $30.2 million contract was marred by a hand injury and an infamous snowboarding incident. He averaged 6.6 points in 55 games last season.
"Last night was a good night, but it's just one game," he said.
Dont think too hard Mike, you'll hurt yourself.
He wont admit that he made a complete ass of himself.
The Suns may have the upper hand on the court, but Phil -- aside from being completely right in this situation -- is now deeply inside D'Antoni's head. It's not just what happened on the court on Friday night, its stuff like this: "It gave me perhaps a better understanding of him," Jackson said. "His immediate response was that he thought it was about him."
It would be fun to see another LAL/PNX playoff series in 2008, if only to see the Zen Master work the media to just infuriate D'Antoni again and again and again.
Well, Phil has his ways.....
I look forward to their xmas day meeting. It should be intense and like you said, Phil will get into his head bigtime. Mikey was way out of control talking that to phil. Phil will make him pay for his stupidity!
I thought D'Antoni's comments were a little childish, but perhaps understandable coming in the heat of a humiliating loss. But I thought Jackson just made a complete ass of himself with his interview comments. At least D'Antoni was sticking up for his players. At any rate, I don't think D'Antoni has to worry about Jackson's vaunted "mind games." If anything, he's only made certain that the Suns will be up for their next meeting with the Lakers.
Mikey was just acting like a sore loser. He was the one that made an ass out hisself.
The Lakers look like they can handle the Suns, imo. The main difference now from back when the suns could handle them is Derek Fisher on Nash. He owned Nash and will make him work on both ends of the floor. The lakers bigs will dominate the paint, so I expect the lakers to do well against the suns from now on.
Don't forget the effect the KThomas trade will have. The S0ns now have a weak frontcourt while LA's bigs are getting better every year.
Dumb people, like Mike D'Antoni, deserve dumb song parodies. Cueing Eric Cartman:
Weeeeeeeeelllll,
Mike D's a
he's a big dumb
he's the biggest in the
NBA
He's a big dumb
if there ever was a
he's a
in every single game
ESPN, he's a ,
TNT, he's a ,
NBATV, he's a
Then on Sunday, just to be different
He's a -ass on ABC
Have you ever met
the Suns stupid coach?
He's the biggest
in the whole wide world
He's a big dumb
And he has a stupid 'stache
He's a big, big, big, big
big big
Bi-bi-bi-bi-bi-bi-bi-
he's a stupid !
Mike D's a ,
well he's just a stupid
I really mean it!
Nash's coach
is a dumb-ass
ing bi-iiiiiiitch!
MIKE D'ANTONI'S A , Y'ALL! YEAH!
Lame as that was, it was like a trillion times cooler than Mike ing D'Antoni.
He kinda looks like my uncle though.
Of course you did, you're a Suns fan. To any impartial fan, D'Antoni looked like a complete ing child and Jackson looked like a guy putting D'Antoni in his place.
I'm not sure there are any "impartial" fans here to consult, but you're right that I'm naturally inclined to see things from D'Antoni's perspective. In response to an earlier comment, I think it may be a little early to conclude that the Lakers now have the Suns' number. For one thing, let's see if Kobe is still a Laker come Christmas.
What I find most interesting is that so many people appear ready these days to defend the Lakers over the Suns. Not that long ago, I think you could always count on a tidal wave of Laker haters to pile on against them in almost any dispute. Now it seems like the Suns may have become that kind of target.
As a Suns fan, I chalk it up to the fact that the Lakers used to be both feared as a compe or and widely-loved by many (causing everyone else to hate them in a backlash). Now the Suns have taken those things away.
It has nothing to do with the teams. I don't like the Lakers or the Suns. The fact of the matter is D'Antoni is quite immature for his age, and this has manifest itself repeatedly in his in-game conduct over the past few seasons. This is just one instance of an ongoing problem that, frankly, makes the guy look pathetic.
Unlike some on here, I actually think the guy is a pretty good basketball coach. But as a person, he's a joke. It's not even that he complains--it's how he complains. I know 1st graders that have fewer temper tantrums than he does.
I absolutely guarantee that if you weren't a Suns fan you would agree with me.
I thought D'Antoni's comments were designed to get his players fired up after a humiliating defeat at the hands of a division "rival." The Suns came out with absolutely no energy in that game (except for Brian Skinner), and I think that pissed him off more than anything Phil Jackson did.
Edit: If so, it worked. The Suns played with a lot more energy against the Cavs.
I could give less than two s if D'Antoni gets pissed off when he's losing. That's a good thing. But he should concentrate more on defensive rotations and not playing Grant Hill forty ing minutes.
And Friday was an aberration. We're still much better than Los Angeles this year, assuming everybody stays healthy.
Yeah, 40 minutes is completely unacceptable, especially since Skinner only played 13 minutes and Banks only 5 (no sight of DJ yet, either).
I was actually surprised by our defense against the Cavs, especially since we had no one big enough to guard Z and Gooden--except Skinner, who played 13 ing minutes!!
I want to slap D'Antoni sometimes. Guy's off his rocker.
Hill played really good D on LeBron. He made a few nutzo three pointers late in the game, but other than that I was impressed.
But yeah, Skinner played great. Hustled alot and grabbed some boards. He should definitely be getting more time.
D' Antoni looked ridiculous and Phil handled him perfectly. "Sit down"
If he plays Hill another 40-minute game, then Kori should set up a vbookie for the over/under on the games he misses.
And as I type, Pittsburgh scores its fourth 1st-half TD. Insane...
And to think that we actually beat Pittsburgh.
The Suns will remain le-less as long as D'Antoni coaches them.
I'd love to see what the zen master could do if he coached the Suns.
It might enough to get them past the Spurs.
I'm not really sure how well we'd do in the triangle. It would kind of be ing over Steve Nash's ridiculous offense running skills.
It's impossible to play mind gamesw with D'Antoni, he's missing an integral piece.
oh he has that piece, he just lost it in his mustache years ago.
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