The Houston Rockets are visting the Los Angeles Lakers for Game 2 of their second round series. Late in the third quarter, Luis Scola and a few Lakers got into it, and Derek Fisher was ejected after slamming into Scola with 13 seconds left.
In the fourth quarter, Kobe Bryant was trying to box Ron Artest out. Artest had his left hand resting on the back of Bryant’s neck, though it didn’t look like anything dirty. As the jostling continued, it was Artest’s upper arm doing it. As Bryant went up for the rebound, Kobe’s right elbow went up into Artest’s neck area. Not sure if it actually hit his neck or not, but it was definitely a high elbow.
A foul was called on Artest, and a furious Ron went right over to jaw in Kobe’s face.
Artest was moved away by referee Joe Crawford, but after a few more seconds of yelling and waving his elbow to show what he was mad about, Artest was ejected.
If any foul should have been called on Artest, it should have been for what I described above. Instead, Bryant elbowed Artest, and that’s when the foul was called on Ron.
As for the ejection, I don’t think Artest needed to be thrown out. A technical foul would have been enough.
