Unhappy Rider Takes a Timeout

As Isaiah “J.R.” Rider himself has often expressed, “Life goes on, man. Life goes on.”

So it did on Friday night, when the moody Rider grew incensed with his inconsistent playing time and sulked in the locker room for all but a few seconds of the third quarter during the Lakers’ 100-96 victory against the Boston Celtics.

One who viewed Rider at halftime called him, “pouty.” Rider was a stoic observer in the fourth quarter, from a chair at the end of the bench.

Rider played three minutes at the end of the second quarter, entering when the Lakers led by 22 points.

“I’m not happy with that,” Rider said. “I do want to play basketball. If I’m not going to play basketball, I could have been with the [Miami] Heat. Period.”

Rider spurned a $1-million offer from the Heat a year ago, after he was released by the Atlanta Hawks. Hoping to revive his flagging career in Los Angeles, he signed with the Lakers for a little more than half of that late in the summer.

Rider committed two turnovers in his three second-quarter minutes.

“He was so disturbed by his play in the first half that he couldn’t recover from it,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “We told him to get his act together and get back out there. He took some time in the locker room to get himself together, so his mind was ready to play. He had to take a timeout.”

While Jackson described Rider as, “Upset at himself for not being ready to play when the opportunity came,” that wasn’t how Rider described it. Rider said he was upset because he deserved to play more.

“I just want an equal opportunity. I can’t play three minutes in a game and get in like a scrub, which I’m not,” he said. “[But] tomorrow’s a brand new day. I’m not going to carry it over.”

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Kobe Bryant, who has played 11 minutes since March 21 because of tendinitis in his left ankle, put himself through some half-speed drills before Friday’s game.

He did not play and said he probably would sit out Sunday’s game in Minnesota, but said he experienced significant improvement.