QUOTAGE

MASTER OF DISASTER

Sacramento Coach Reggie Theus, above, on keeping Ron Artest in the starting lineup despite his trips back and forth from Indianapolis, where his daughter was having a kidney procedure:

“If anyone can play when there’s chaos going on, stuff going on, Ron is accustomed to that.”

WHO CARES ABOUT DEPTH?

New York Knicks Coach Isiah Thomas on his Pistons’ battles with the Larry Bird-Kevin McHale Celtics in the ‘80s:

“You always said, ‘Boy if we could ever get to Greg Kite, we’ll be OK.’ We never managed to get to Greg Kite.”

HE DOES

Detroit Coach Flip Saunders, who has a deep bench and no starter averaging 36 minutes, on the Celtics and Cavaliers:

“The one thing I noticed about both of those teams was that neither team has a lot of depth. Both played their starters more than 40 minutes.”

COUNTRY LIFE

Former Maverick Marquis Daniels, now with the Indiana Pacers:

“I got a field of llamas next to my house. I never saw those before in my life. I thought they were dinosaur sheep. You see foxes and wolves all the time. You don’t see that in Dallas unless you go to the zoo.”

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

LeBron James to jeering Detroit fans before last week’s game:

“You boo me because you fear me.”

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LOOKING AHEAD

Offering free tacos when the Lakers hold opponents under 100 points seemed harmless, but the Denver Nuggets didn’t enjoy the final minute of Thursday’s 127-99 blowout as much as the crowd.

The Nuggets were already in a bad mood, as you could tell when Carmelo Anthony was ejected for grabbing Sasha Vujacic by the throat, although Anthony claimed he only meant to grab him by the elbow and his throat got in the way.

That was with 6:18 left. In the final 1:39, the Lakers outscored the Nuggets, 7-0, stopping them on their last five possessions as the crowd went wild.

In the jubilation, someone on the Lakers bench even threw a towel in the air.

With the Lakers going to Denver on Wednesday, this wasn’t a masterpiece in timing. The Nuggets don’t have a taco promotion, but won’t require any more motivation.