The AP reports: Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, Pau Gasol added 22 points and 14 rebounds and Los Angeles won Game 2 111-98 on Wednesday night to even the Western Conference semifinal series… Ron Artest, one of two players ejected in the game, scored 25 points and Carl Landry added a career playoff-high 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who overcame a 14-point deficit in the first half only to trail most of the second half… Houston’s Yao Ming finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds after picking up three fouls in the first half… Emotions boiled over in the second half, with Derek Fisher of the Lakers and Artest getting ejected and technical fouls assessed to Bryant, Artest, Luis Scola, Luke Walton and Lamar Odom, who had 11 rebounds… Odom replaced C Andrew Bynum in the Lakers’ starting lineup. Bynum was scoreless with one rebound in 8 minutes.
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Ron Artest ejected after elbows with Kobe Bryant
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.
Derek Fisher elbows Luis Scola, is ejected
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The Houston Rockets are visting the Los Angeles Lakers for Game 2 of their second round series. And things got touchy late in the third quarter, with hostility exchanged between Rockets forward Luis Scola and several Lakers.
With 13.2 seconds left in the third, Derek Fisher set a screen against Scola, but in the process of doing so, slammed into Scola and elbowing him hard.
Referees watched the replay and gave Fisher a flagrant-2 foul, which results in an ejection.
Fisher clearly deserved to be tossed. And don’t be surprised if he’s suspended for Game 3.
Rockets outmuscle Lakers 100-92 in series opener
The AP reports: Although the Rockets absorbed some hits and shed the most blood, they outmuscled the Los Angeles Lakers 100-92 in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday night. Yao had 28 points and 10 rebounds, Ron Artest added 21 points and Aaron Brooks had 19 for the Rockets, who are in the second round for the first time since 1997… Bryant, who finished a distant second to LeBron James in NBA MVP voting announced earlier Monday, scored 32 points, doing his best to keep the Lakers in the game despite missing practice on Sunday with a sore throat. He scored 22 of the Lakers’ final 42 points.
Live fan discussion of this game took place in this forum topic.
LeBron James wins MVP
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LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers is the winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2008-09 NBA Most Valuable Player, the NBA announced today.
James totaled 1,172 points including 109 first place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five for third, three for fourth and one for each fifth-place vote received.
Rounding out the top five in voting for this season’s award are the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (698 points), Miami’s Dwyane Wade (680), Orlando’s Dwight Howard (328) and New Orleans’ Chris Paul (192).
James, the first Cavalier to win the award, led Cleveland in scoring (28.4 ppg, second in the NBA), rebounds (7.6 rpg), assists (7.2 apg, fourth), and steals (1.7 spg, eighth). Since the 1973-74 season when steals became an official stat, James is the fourth player to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals, while also leading his team to 50-plus wins (Larry Bird 1985-86; Grant Hill, 1996-97; Kevin Garnett, 2002-03). The 6-8 forward helped Cleveland to an NBA- and franchise-best 66-16 season, a 21-game improvement over last season (45-37), marking the 12th time an NBA team has reached 66 wins in a season.
More info and the voting results on our NBA MVP page.
Kobe Bryant was sick Sunday
The Los Angeles Daily News (Elliott Teaford) reports: Kobe Bryant called in sick Sunday morning. He skipped the Lakers’ final practice before they begin their second-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets because he has a sore throat. The Lakers couldn’t say for certain whether he would play tonight in Game 1 at Staples Center. “If it is at all possible, I would expect him to be here,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “You certainly don’t want it to happen (Bryant coming down with an illness). You’re certainly unhappy about it happening. We’ll deal with what it is. “That’s what goes on in life. You just have to accept it.”
Bryant, Lakers close out Jazz with 107-96 win
The AP reports: With Kobe Bryant making everything from 3-pointers to a fadeaway jumper while falling on his backside, the Lakers ran away from the Utah Jazz on Monday night, winning 107-96 to finish the opening-round series in five games. Bryant scored 31 points and Lamar Odom had 26 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who earned several days of rest before meeting the winner of the Portland-Houston series… Paul Millsap led Utah with 16 points while Andrei Kirilenko and Williams had 14 apiece. Gasol had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Ariza 12 points for the Lakers.
Luke Walton injures ankle
Lakers forward Luke Walton, who suffered a sprained left ankle in Saturday night’s Game 3 at Utah, had an MRI exam this morning. Results of the test show a partial tear of the deltoid ligament.
Walton will be out indefinitely and his status will be re-evaluated in approximately one week.
Bryant huge, Lakers beat Jazz 108-94
The AP reports: It took Kobe Bryant only a few minutes to end his shooting slump. Bryant scored Los Angeles’ first 11 points and once his teammates joined in, the Lakers overwhelmed the Jazz 108-94 on Saturday night and moved within one game of advancing to the second round. “It was important for me to come out and be a little more assertive,” said Bryant, who scored 38 two nights after one of his worst shooting games in years. Bryant went 16-for-24, erasing any memories of his 5-for-24 night Thursday in the Lakers’ only loss of the series. “We never could get close enough to guard him,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “I think he put everyone on his back and got them off to the way they wanted to play.” He scored in double figures in each of the first three quarters and more than doubled his scoring from Game 4.
Adam Morrison and Sasha vujacic get testy
The Los Angeles Times (Bill Plaschke) reports: Sasha Vujacic grabbed. Adam Morrison screamed. Vujacic grabbed harder, playing defense with handfuls of jersey. Morrison screamed louder, warning Vujacic to keep his hands to himself. Vujacic shrugged. Morrison surged. The team converged. The men were separated. During this final scrimmage of a Friday afternoon practice at EnergySolutions Arena, some Lakers were wincing. Sitting on the baseline, Kobe Bryant was smiling. “I wasn’t even going to move,” he said later. “A lot of meowing going on out there. The claws coming out. A good thing.”
The Orange County Register (Kevin Ding) reports (via blog): Vujacic and Morrison were guarding each other in the Lakers’ 4-on-4 halfcourt practice, and Morrison loudly and angrily told Vujacic that he was sick of Vujacic’s grabs and elbows. Vujacic argued that Morrison was the one who initiated the problem by wrongly using his knee. The two argued for several minutes despite teammates and coaches trying to intervene, and when play resumed the two continued to go at each other with Morrison grabbing Vujacic’s jersey and the arguments sparking anew several times later.