Taken Down

Times are definitely changing. Large-scale squabbles are no longer limited to Lakers vs. Lakers.

Kobe Bryant and Raja Bell continued to trade insults Wednesday, and Coach Phil Jackson even ventured into the dispute, another compelling development in an already entertaining playoff series that ends tonight if the Lakers get their way, or else it’s on to Phoenix for Game 7.

Bell was suspended by the league for tonight’s game for “unnecessary and excessive contact” on a fourth-quarter foul Tuesday in which he wrapped his left arm around Bryant’s neck and threw him to the floor.

Commissioner David Stern, speaking before Wednesday night’s playoff game in Cleveland, called Bell’s move “a very unmanly act, and it was unnecessary for our game” and said of the suspension, “

Bryant called the foul clothes-lining, Jackson called it “bulldogging.”

The name-calling didn’t stop there.

Bell was contrite immediately after Tuesday’s game, calling his foul an “overreaction,” but he was less apologetic Wednesday and moved into attack mode.

Bell, who has had run-ins with Bryant over the years, said of the Laker All-Star: “I have no respect for him. I think he’s a pompous, arrogant individual.”

He also disagreed with Bryant’s high-contact style of play.

“I think a lot of people let him get away with things and he feels like he’s supposed to get away with them and I don’t agree with that,” Bell told reporters in Phoenix. “If you’re going to keep hitting me in my face and then talking like you’re not doing it on purpose, there’s a reason both my cheeks are bruised right now and I can barely open my jaw. All right? Every time you stick your butt out [in the post] and try to hit me in my genitals, you’re doing it on purpose. That’s something you don’t do inadvertently and it was enough.”

Bryant fired back when told of Bell’s thoughts.

“Does he know me? Do I know this guy? I don’t know this guy,” Bryant said. “I might have said one word to this guy. I don’t know this kid. I think he overreacts to stuff.

“We go out there, we play, and when we play during the season, we play each other. That’s it. I don’t know this kid. I don’t need to know this kid. I don’t want to. We go out there, we play the game and leave it at that. Maybe he wasn’t hugged enough as a kid. I look at him a little bit, he gets a little insecure or something. I don’t know.”

Bryant also said Bell “has a glass jaw” and vehemently denied any low blows in the post.

“Whoa, I’m nowhere near doing something like that,” Bryant said. “We’re out there playing basketball. He’s a good defender. He’s a good basketball player. Just go out there and play the game. There’s no need to whine about it. Just go out there and play.”

Bell, who will be replaced in the starting lineup by Leandro Barbosa, also brought Jackson into the mix, describing an exchange he had with the Laker coach in the fourth quarter.

Bell said he was talking to a referee about Bryant’s wayward elbows when Jackson told him he deserved it, using an expletive to further the point.

“I thought that was kind of bush league from such a good coach,” Bell said.

Jackson acknowledged the exchange, saying Bell illegally restricts Bryant’s movement in the post. “I told him you’re leaning in there all the time, you deserve that,” Jackson said.

Jackson, who exchanged a few elbows of his own as a rough-hewn forward for the New York Knicks and who later coached against Detroit’s “Bad Boys” teams in the early ‘90s, said this playoff matchup was comparatively mild.

“It really hasn’t been a physical series,” he said. “Now, this is standards that maybe I’m thinking of 15 years ago, which we didn’t like. Guys were thrown up into the seats and things happened that were difficult on the floor. I think they’re much more on edge than is necessary in this series. My guys are pussycats and I know Phoenix has a bunch of pussycats too.”

As for Game 6, the Suns probably will play Barbosa or forward Shawn Marion on Bryant, with Boris Diaw sometimes defending Lamar Odom.

The Lakers acknowledged they fell out of the game plan in their 114-97 loss Tuesday, helping the Suns of Game 5 looked like the Suns of old, an unsettling notion for them.

The Lakers will try to pound the ball inside, again, hoping to find Odom for easy layups and trying to get Kwame Brown going again after a foul-plagued Game 5.

“We have to do a much better job at slowing the tempo down, playing methodical basketball, taking our time, taking shots with four or five on the shot clock instead of 14 or 15,” Odom said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.