Ted Green: Lakers-Rockets is more than just a playoff series
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Don King is on Line 1 and that’s Bob Arum on hold.
HBO and Showtime probably want in too.
How does this sound for Game 3 in Houston? ‘The Throwdown in H-Town, a Kobe/Ron-Ron Production.’ It’d be huge on Pay Per View, bigger than De La Hoya-Mayweather.
Everyone wants a piece of the action. Ron Artest wants a piece of Kobe for elbowing him in the throat. Fish already got his piece of Luis Scola, laying out the Argentine, while somebody carved out a nice little chunk of Fish’s scalp.
Two ejections, five technicals, a Rocket (Von Wafer) kicked out of the game by his coach for some type of verbal insubordination, and enough trash talk in Game 2 to keep Oscar the Grouch busy for a whole season on ‘Sesame Street.’
Is this great or what? And think, they’re just getting started.
On TNT, Charles Barkley said he loved the physicality, calling it playoff basketball. Or as he put it, “These are the playoffs, Ernie.”
Sorry, Charlie, the Lakers-Rockets series is more than the playoffs. Now it’s personal. Or putting it another way, it’s the UFC meets the NBA.
That’s the Ultimate Fighting Championship. We have Kobe, making a big point of letting the world know that the league’s new alleged Kobe- stopper, Shane Battier, can’t defend him, going so far as to mouth those exact words. Read my lips: He can’t guard me. The ’08 MVP then dropped 40 on Battier to prove the point -- to make Shane feel the pain.
We have Derek Fisher, the little pit bull, interceding on behalf of his teammate Lamar Odom, who was getting pushed around by Scola, flattening the long-haired Houston power forward who came up to backpick him, with an NFL-type de-cleater. Caramba, a shot right in Scola’s nariz y boca.
Don’t cry for me, Argentina. These are the playoffs, Ernie.
And we have Ron-Ron, so enraged that the refs let Kobe get away with a little cheap shot to his Adam’s apple, he made a beeline (or is that Beanline?) for Bryant, going from one side of the court all the way to the other to get in Kobe’s face, to let him know that Ron-Ron likes to play rough, but not dirty.
And Artest then offering what is destined to become a postgame interview classic: “Doesn’t he know I’m Ron Artest?” Trust me, Ronny, he knows. So listen up, Laker Nation: Don’t be surprised if they add a fourth referee for Friday night’s Game 3 at the Pepsi Center. Counting for the knockdowns, Joey Crawford.
It may still end up being Kobe vs. LeBron in the Finals, the series the league prays for and might kill for. But two games into this War on the Floor against the hardscrabble, hard-case Rockets, it’s obvious the Lakers have a great, big, potential seven-round fight on their hands right now.
And a real promotable one too.
-- Ted Green
Green formerly covered the Lakers for The Times. He is currently senior sports producer for KTLA Prime News.