BOSTON -- Through the first four games of the NBA Finals, the Lakers have contended they are above trying to bait Celtics center Kendrick Perkins into his seventh technical foul of this postseason, which would result in an automatic one-game suspension.
Now that Rasheed Wallace has joined Perkins on the brink of suspension after picking up his sixth technical foul in Game 4, and with Andrew Bynum's status becoming an eternal question mark, are the Lakers still not looking to push any buttons in Game 5 to weaken Boston's frontline when the series goes back to Los Angeles? "That's not fair play," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. "That's not the way to play. Yeah, you can be provocative and get out there and act kind of like they do if you want to and get in people's faces and do that. But that's not the way I like to coach a team. That's not what I consider positive coaching, and that's what I like to think is the right way to do things."
Celtics coach Doc Rivers doesn't necessarily agree with Jackson's assessment that the Lakers have not been instigators when it comes to Perkins and expects them to do the same with Wallace in Game 5 now that he's in the same predicament.
"I thought in the last game, even though they say they didn't, I thought [Pau] Gasol -- I thought there was a lot of extra stuff going on," Rivers said. "And they're right, obviously, we put ourselves in this predicament with Perk, and I thought Perk did a great job of walking away. It's clearly the new Perk. I hadn't seen that side of him."
Perkins has understood the situation he's been in since picking up his sixth technical foul in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals (he had a seventh rescinded) and isn't looking to slip up now that the Celtics are two wins away from winning the championship.
"It's in my mind, I'm not trying to get ejected, I'm not trying to get suspended or nothing like that," Perkins said. "I'm going to play hard and I'm going to play smart. I got three games left. Doc tells me to hold my composure. Sometimes the tougher guy has to walk away. I have to make sure I'm there for my teammates and do my job. It's hard because I'm the enforcer on the team so sometimes I want to instigate a problem, but I can't do that."Rivers has addressed the situation with Perkins and Wallace and doesn't expect either to get another technical foul in the series. But if one does, he hopes it will be in a possible Game 7.
"I'm hoping obviously there is no Game 7, but if it happens, let's let it happen in Game 7, then we're fine," Rivers said. "There's no other game they can get suspended. It's really only two games they have to get through if you think about it, it's not three. I don't want them to be less emotional. I want them to play their games but also have some discipline. That's about all we can do."
