As was expected, the NBA has suspended Lakers forward Ron Artest for Game 3 of the Lakers series against Dallas.
The reason was Artest smacked J.J. Barea across the face with his forearm near the end of the Lakers Game 2 loss. It was deserved. Watch the video at this link if you haven’t seen it, but this is fitting.
It also leaves the Lakers in a bind — it means more play for the Lakers bench, and so far this series the Lakers bench has stunk up the joint. In Game 2 the Lakers bench provided 12 points on 6-of-23 shooting, as many turnovers as assists plus some bad defense. To be fair, in Game 1 Lamar Odom came off the bench and was solid, but Barnes, Steve Blake and Shannon Brown were not.
Look for Barnes to get the start, but that means Dallas can shift the longer Shawn Marion on to Kobe Bryant, leaving Jason Kidd on Barnes. It’s all not good for a Lakers team with some real issues this series down 2-0 (having lost both games at home).
