Lakers 99 Knicks 91
INGLEWOOD – It was bad enough that the reeling Knicks lost two of three on this Trip to Nowhere.
But Dennis Rodman, the rebounding fiend theKnicks did not want, poured a pound of salt into the team’s – and coach Jeff Van Gundy’s – deep wounds last night at the Forum.
Rodman, owner of five championship rings, kept his blond head about him while the Knicks, owners of zero championship rings, lost their heads, self-destructing in a wild 99-91 loss to the Lakers that saw two frustrated Knicks – Chris Dudley and Kurt Thomas – get ejected while Patrick Ewing fouled out.
Add a dash of Rodman’s special madness, 29 points from a high-flying Kobe Bryant, 21 from Shaquille O’Neal and a quiet 19 from Glen Rice and you have all the ingredients for a Knick loss, especially when Ewing shot 9-for-25. Latrell Sprewell led the Knicks with 25 off the bench, 24 in the second half.
Thomas threw Rodman to the floor in a skirmish with 2.4 seconds remaining in the third quarter and earned a flagrant foul, Type 2, which signals automatic ejection.
The tone was set. After O’Neal pushed Dudley to the floor with 6:13 remaining in the fourth on a dunk where O’Neal wound up in Dudley’s lap, Dudley fired the basketball at O’Neal, who was running back downcourt, and hit him, earning another automatic ejection.
Down two big men and trailing by five at the time – and with Ewing’s shot in the dumpster – the Knicks were dead.
The Lakers went on an 11-4 run to snap their two-game losing streak and send the Knicks to a 16-14 mark with the season three-fifths complete. They are 4-9 on the road and come home to face the Pacers tomorrow night.
Expect talk about Van Gundy’s job security to heat up even before then.
“He’s a dirty player,” Van Gundy said of Rodman. “I mean he’s a great player, but he’s a dirty player. It amazes me that he’s always the one involved and always the other players who get penalized. ”
Asked if was hard not to retaliate, Rodman made the most of that opening, saying, “No, it’s not hard. It’s a game of wits. You got to know when to be aggressive and when not to. You show your aggression during the play, but you do not show your aggression after the play.”
The Knicks fell for the trap because Thomas had been kicked earlier by Rodman. And here’s the arrow through the heart, Knick fans.
“You just have to be a lot more smarter and a lot more cunning,” said Rodman.
Rodman certainly was smarter and more cunning than the Knicks last night. Yes, Rodman comes with a freight plane of baggage, but you have to give him his due – this dirty player usually finds a way to get the dirty job done.
While discussing Rodman, who blew off Saturday’s practice and refused to go back into Friday night’s loss to the Kings, before the game, Van Gundy said, “I think that’s difficult for a team, not just a coach. Thankfully for their team and their organization, he’s not their best player. Their best player, [O’Neal] works hard in practice. Kobe is hard-working, too.”
Having said all that, Van Gundy the coach added, “But you know what, if he gets you 20 rebounds and guards, then it may be worth it.”
The Knicks shied away from acquiring Rodman because of his antics – and their rebounding woes continue.
Rodman grabbed 12 rebounds as the Lakers won the board battle, 44-41.
Ewing said he was going to bring his “A” game to take on O’Neal, who last week ripped Ewing for his union leadership. He flunked.
After the loss, Thomas said he wasn’t sure of the difference between a flagrant foul 1 and a FF-2.
“I didn’t think I should have been ejected, but I really don’t know the rules on how it goes with flagrant 1 and flagrant 2,” he admitted.
As for his lapse, Dudley’s Yale education didn’t save him as he snapped, throwing the ball at O’Neal.
“I didn’t know I was going to get ejected, ” Dudley said. “I thought we’d both get T’s.”
Across the locker room, Ewing was saying, “Rodman gets away with murder.”
He sure does. And last night he killed Ewing’s Knicks, a team that has been known to lose its cool.
