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Bryant looked at Artest in the locker room and recounted the start of the game, when the Lakers and Celtics were already jostling and trash-talking in the jump circle before tipoff. Artest got the ball in the post on the first play and was fouled hard by Boston's Paul Pierce — at which point Artest struck the sort of wide-eyed, menacing pose very few non-institutionalized people can.

He stared and seemingly braced himself to fight. Bryant told Artest he noticed the Celtics' reaction at that precise moment: "They didn't want any part of this crazy (expletive). I'm telling you. I saw it."

There's very little Bryant wants more for this Lakers team than Bynum not backing down from contact and Artest being an effectively "crazy (expletive)." Bear in mind that after the Lakers began this trip with a loss in Cleveland, Bryant questioned the toughness of his teammates and looked forward to seeing something different in Boston.

KG throws elbow into Sasha's chest before rebound. Sasha definitely felt that one.

semi-sentient wrote:While I love the toughness that Artest brings and how he psyched the Celtics, that only works against teams with fake toughness.

It won't work against the Cavs because LeBron doesn't get rattled and neither does Shaq. This kind of toughness will come in extremely handy if we face the Celtics or Magic in the Finals, but the chances of that happening are incredibly slim. We need to figure out how to get tougher against the Cavs and that starts with our bigs. I don't think they have it in them, personally. They see Shaq and they instantly start peeing on themselves.

The Laker Kid wrote:how about when KG talks smack with Bynum and then Bynum dunked on his face..

LAKESHOW wrote:artest was AWESOME today!!

this is what we brought him here for. INTERIOR toughness.

ariza was great, but he was "perimeter" great. length. clogged lanes. but on the inside, we would get beat up and have to live with paus "soft" label.

today however, artest was goin for it. he was in pierces jaw all game long. and fought underneath when needed.

the problem?

the celtics might not even make it there, and we might have to face off with the cavaliers. and lebron is just too overpowering for anyone . . . even ron ron.

The Laker Kid wrote:how about when KG talks smack with Bynum and then Bynum dunked on his face..

DEEP3CL wrote:Good find j-far, but yeah I'll take control crazy if it's like that. Kobe was right though, they didn't want to deal with Ron. Like that sequence when KG flopped and was clapping, Ron just walked right by the fool while he was on the floor....like yeah whateva. I loved it because usually the littlest things KG does gets under weak minded teams skin.

The mental games from Boston are over as far as it's concerned to the Lakers.