By MATT CALKINS
The Press-Enterprise
PHOENIX - It will likely die by tip-off against the Celtics, if not sooner. But it was a few Phoenix points away from living in Lakers infamy.
Sasha Vujacic, who had a productive, five-point first half, was reinserted to the game in the third quarter and was once again looking like an asset to the Lakers.
When he was removed early in the fourth, at least for the time being, he looked like anything but an asset.
What happened in between was a scuffle between Vujacic and Phoenix backup point guard Goran Dragic -- both of whom are Slovenian.
According to Vujacic, Dragic started taunting him and disparaging his family members.
Shortly after, with his back turned to Dragic, Vujacic put up an elbow and hit Dragic in the face.
A flagrant foul was called, Dragic hit his two free throws, the crowd went berserk and the Suns were on their way to cutting a 15-point deficit to three.
Vujacic maintained it was unintentional.
"It's a play that I would have never done in my lifetime, it came out of nowhere," Vujacic said. "I didn't see that someone was right up into my face, but it doesn't matter right now. We won, it's going to be history tomorrow."
Vujacic said he was frustrated that a "human being would cross things and say things about another person's family," and added that he was "sick to his stomach" when the Suns started making a run.
When asked if it was just a coincidence that his elbows went up right after the exchange with Dragic, Vujacic said to "check it out yourself ... it came out of nowhere."
He went on to say that "if I wanted to, I could have done it a lot harder ... I don't do stupid things like that, to be honest."
Haha, anyone buying this?
