Late in the second quarter of the Lakers' Game 6 loss in Houston, Kobe Bryant got into a little something with Ron Artest. The two seemed to inadvertently bump heads, and Artest, having a knack for the overdramatic, wildly snapped his head back and jogged away. His antics got Kobe whistled for the personal foul, and after Bryant complained about the call, he picked up a technical foul.
The technical would have been Kobe's fifth of the post-season, which could have been problematic for the Lakers. Once a player receives seven technical fouls in the post-season, they earn themselves an automatic one-game suspension.
The Lakers appealed the league to review the play, and they rescinded the technical foul. Bryant's total now stands at four since the playoffs began.
Kobe could be seen telling Artest after things settled down that he flopped, and Artest responded by telling Kobe, "I didn't flop, I'm bleeding." Then, Artest stuck out his tongue, which confirmed his assertion. Whether he was hurt by the play or not, running away like he did afterwards was completely unnecessary, but it did work in the short term: Kobe picked up a personal and a technical, further adding to the Lakers' first half misery in Game 6.
Of course, all of this might ultimately be completely irrelevant.
We're talking about possible suspensions for Kobe in a future round of the playoffs. But with a Game 7 looming this Sunday, there are certainly no guarantees at this point that the Lakers will survive and advance.
