Gasol Gets Physical, Gentry Gets Ejected in Lakers' Win Over the Suns

PHOENIX -- The Lakers and Suns battled in a competitive back-and-forth contest on Friday, one which L.A. ended up winning by a final of 102-96. Both teams had large runs against the other, and really, even despite an abysmal second quarter from the Suns, Phoenix had its chances down the stretch.

But after the Suns had erased all of a 15-point third quarter deficit to take a brief one-point lead with just over nine minutes to play, when the game started to get back away from them, that's when Alvin Gentry lost his cool, and lost his seat on the sideline in the process.

The Lakers had regained control, and held an eight-point advantage with about five minutes to play. Pau Gasol went up to prevent Louis Amundson from converting an easy two inside, and in swinging for his arm, ended up hitting Amundson squarely across the face instead.

The referees had been calling things pretty closely all night, but perhaps based on the fact that Gasol immediately raised his hand to claim responsibility for the foul, along with the fact that he helped Amundson up afterward, no flagrant foul was called. This sent Alvin Gentry into a rage, and he had to be physically restrained by Jason Richardson and a couple of his assistant coaches while arguing his case to the officials. Gentry picked up two quick technical fouls, and was ejected from the game.

Derek Fisher hit both technical free throws for the Lakers; Amundson hit one of his two. And after Gasol hit a turnaround jumper in the lane on the following possession, with the Lakers now up 11 with under five minutes remaining, this series of events effectively sealed the game in L.A.'s favor.

It was an interesting play, for a couple of reasons.

One, no one would have blinked had the refs called a flagrant foul there. While there might not have been intent on Gasol's part, there was certainly some serious contact to Amundson's face. And since referees usually don't want to encourage retaliation, they end up making the (occasionally over-cautious) call of a flagrant in these situations.
"Pau gave a hard foul tonight, which is what we like to see from him: not giving up layups or easy opportunities. It's not playing dirty, it's just not giving up anything easy."
- Kobe Bryant

Two, and possibly of greater interest: does a player's reputation factor into whether or not the officials will whistle him for a flagrant foul? In tonight's example, the answer seems to be a resounding "yes."

Not that we heard that from Gentry, who notoriously (and perhaps to the benefit of his personal financial situation) refuses to ever discuss the officiating in his post-game comments.

"I will not talk about it," Gentry said of the play that he was willing to get ejected over. "Let the NBA look at it and see, see what they think. They've got all the answers, we'll let them decide."

Some members of the Lakers were a little more candid in discussing the play. Ron Artest agreed that it could have been called a flagrant on Gasol, and that if he were the one who committed the foul, it likely would have been a lot worse.

"I thought they were about to call a flagrant one," Artest said. "But they didn't call it. I thought it was a one. I think [Amundson] was off balance. He went to the hole off one leg, and then he was off balance. And as Pau was not letting him get a basket ... it probably could have been a one, you know? How he fell was bad. I can see why [Gentry] got mad.

"But if it was me, that would have been a [flagrant] two. You already know that."

Gasol, as you might imagine, said that it wasn't intentional. And for a guy who's accused of being soft even by the most die-hard of Lakers fans, it's tough to look at his comments at being anything other than 100 percent sincere.

"I'm not a guy who gets flagrant fouls at all," Gasol said. "I didn't mean to obviously hit him in the face at all, I was trying to stop him from getting an easy layup. My intention was to hit him in his arm, and when I went across, I made contact with his face. It was unfortunate, and that's why right away I raised my hand and helped him up, and that was it."

And did Gasol think that his reputation might have saved him from being whistled for the flagrant in that situation?

"I'm not sure," Gasol said. "Probably, because the referees understand the kind of player that you are, the history that you have and when it's intentional and when it's not. Obviously I wasn't trying to hit or hurt anyone. But things like that happen. You get hit in the face, I get hit in the face a few times, even though the ball might not be in my hands. It just happens, it's part of the game."



For his part, Amundson saw the play for what it was, and recognized that there was no malicious intent from Gasol.

"It was a hard foul, but I don't think he's a dirty player or anything," Amundson said. "He was just trying to make a play on the ball, and it was real physical the whole night, so I wasn't surprised."

While Gasol's play on Amundson clearly wasn't intentional, the Lakers have been longing to play a more physical style of basketball, especially defensively. So it's not surprising that Kobe Bryant wasn't exactly apologetic when it came to the topic of Gasol's late hard foul on Amundson.

"Pau gave a hard foul tonight, which is what we like to see from him: not giving up layups or easy opportunities," Bryant said. "It's just playing hard. It's not playing dirty, it's just not giving up anything easy."