LOS ANGELES — In case there was any doubt, the Lakers showed they aren’t going to be knocked around during their quest for a third straight NBA championship.
When push comes to shove, they can be physical with the best of them. Just ask the Mavericks.
In what was a possible preview of a second-round playoff matchup, Thursday night’s 110-82 Lakers’ victory had a postseason flair to it.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Lakers’ Matt Barnes and Steve Blake and the Mavericks’ Jason Terry and Brendan Haywood were ejected after a shoving match under the basket. Los Angeles’ Shannon Brown was later ejected in a separate incident.
On Friday, the NBA suspended Barnes one game without pay for his part in the incident.
“This is a family here,” Barnes said. “So if someone comes and hits your brother, pushes your brother, then you definitely have their back. And that’s the case here.”
The late skirmish didn’t take away from the Lakers’ eighth straight win and 16th in 17 games since the all-star break, helping them pull within 2 1/2 games of slumping San Antonio for the NBA’s top overall record.
“We don’t want games to end like that, but you want to see players competing and caring about the game at the level which brings that kind of intensity,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “It’s just a buildup, a buildup for what we can see down the road.”
Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Mavericks, whose five-game winning streak ended.
“It was a chippy game, but the playoffs start early,” Nowitzki said. “That’s what the playoffs are all about. Emotions are going to run high.”
Lakers star Kobe, Bryant believes that incidents such as this can do a team good.
“It brings us closer together, simple as that,” he said.
