Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Image

In the wake of Lakers forward, Metta World Peace’s 7 game suspension, Lakers head coach Mike Brown joined The Dan Patrick Show to give his thoughts on the suspension and also discuss how the loss of Metta will affect the Lakers lineup as they move forward into the postseason. Here are a few highlights from Brown’s interview:

What do you think of the 7 game suspension?

It was in the NBA’s hands and they’re the disciplinary group for stuff like that so whatever I felt that they deemed was necessary for the punishment, I felt that Metta and our organization would definitely abide by it.”

Did you speak to Commissioner David Stern at all about this?

I did not. I know when the punishment was handed out they spoke with Mitch Kupchak about it and Mitch just passed the information along to me.”

How is Ron (Metta) dealing with this?

I did not speak to him. We got done practicing [yesterday]and then he left, and I left. I did not speak to him after he heard about the time and length of the suspension but from my understanding he’s doing ok.”

How will the team adjust with him out of the lineup?

We’ll try not to do too much differently. Devin Ebanks has got some key minutes while Kobe was on the shelf for 6 or 7 games. He started at the 2 guard spot when Kobe was out. Now he’ll start at the small forward until Metta gets back.”

Have you spoken to Ron [Metta]?

Not since the 7 game suspension has come out, I have not spoken with him. We have exchanged texts, but I have not spoken with him.”

What does the suspension entail?

From my understanding he has to be out of the arena that we play in 2 hours prior we tip-off. So he can travel with us, he can practice with us, he can come to shootarounds, team meetings on the road…Obviously he cant be in there during the game and other than that he’s fine to be around us.”

What was the locker room like after the Oklahoma City game?

I know everybody was hoping James [Harden] was ok. And this was the tough part for me was I was asked in the 3rd quarter what I thought about the incident….I didn’t see it, I was looking down at the he other end on our transition defense….I saw the commotion and kind of got word of mouth what happened…I didn’t see it until after the game in terms of the replay. …Metta said himself that he shouldn’t have done it and I agree he shouldn’t have done it…so for me after the game I was talking about more the win and what certain guys did well for us more than anything else.”

How is Kobe as an assistant coach?

[laugh] He’s great. I’ve said all along he can be an assistant or head coach but he just might not be able to afford the luxuries that he enjoys in life.[laugh]“

Why don’t great players always make great head coaches?

Great players do work hard and I think that’s a misnomer; that everybody thinks that it all comes natural for them, but they work their tails off in order to be great. And a guy like Kobe or Lebron, you guys like Michael [Jordan], Magic [Johnson], Larry [Bird], when things comes that easy for them because of their intellect, their feel, their work ethic and their talent, when guys dont understand when you’ve told him for the 3rd time in 2 minutes, they don’t get it right, yes it can be very frustrating for them and that can cause them to not want to coach.”

Mike Brown also talks about his funniest Shaq story (Brown was Shaq’s head coach in Cleveland for most of the 2009-10 season), fining himself for being late to team practices and who he thinks the NBA MVP is. The entire interview can be heard here.

Photo by Stephen Dunn | Getty Images

The Lakers’ Metta World Peace has been suspended for seven games without pay for striking the Thunder’s James Harden in the head with his elbow, the NBA announced today.

The incident, which resulted in a Flagrant Foul Two and ejection, occurred with 1:39 remaining in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 114-106 victory over the Thunder on April 22 at Staples Center.

The concussion suffered by James Harden demonstrates the danger posed by violent acts of this kind, particularly when they are directed at the head area,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said. “We remain committed to taking necessary measures to protect the safety of NBA players, including the imposition of appropriate penalties for players with a history of on-court altercations.”

The Los Angeles Lakers have issued the following statement from General Manager Mitch Kupchak following the NBA’s announcement of the suspension of Metta World Peace:

Metta has for the most part been a model citizen both on and off the court since joining the Lakers. Still, his most recent lapse in judgement is not to be condoned or accepted. His actions could have seriously injured another player, and his absence during this suspension will hurt our team as well. While we accept the league’s decision, we will be supportive of Metta and try to help him be more professional on the court.”

World Peace will miss the regular season finale against Sacramento, and 6 playoff games.

Photo: Getty Images

It’s April 22, 2012 and the (40-24) Los Angeles Lakers host the (46-17) Oklahoma City Thunder at the Staples Center. The Spurs beat the Lakers soundly for the second time in nine days. Sunday’s matinee game against the Thunder gives the Lakers the opportunity to bounce back, win a game against an elite opponent, and gain some momentum before the start of the post season.

It is ironic that the Lakers will end the regular season matching up against the top two teams in the Western Conference.

Entering this season the Lakers had taken six straight season series from the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers trail the season series against the Thunder (0-2), after taking last season’s series from Oklahoma City, going 3-1 against the Thunder in 2009-2010, sweeping the 2008-2009 series (3-0) and 2007-2008 (4-0). L.A. won the 2006-2007 (3-1) and 2005-2006 (2-1) season series.

The Lakers are 8-2 in their last 10 games at home against the OKC Thunder, losing their last at Staples Center after winning eight straight. The Thunder are 21-11 on the road, while the Lakers are 25-7 at the Staples Center.

The last time the Lakers played the Thunder it was literally a tale of two halves; in the first half, L.A. got off to a fast start building a 12-point lead at one point, only to see their big lead cut to five by halftime.

In the second half, after shooting poorly to start the game, the Thunder sparked by Derek Fisher’s inspired performance caught fire. Russell Westbrook (17-points on 6-of-10 shooting) alone outscored the Lakers in the third quarter. The Thunder pushed their lead to 19 and ran past the Lakers in a 102-93 win.

Photo by Gabriel Bouys | AFP | Getty Images

It’s April 20, 2012 and the (40-23) Los Angeles Lakers are in Texas for an important game against the (45-16) San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers had a solid bounce back 99-87 win game against the Golden State Warriors after suffering their worst loss of the season to the Spurs on 4/17.

Make no mistake tonight’s game against the Spurs on the road and Sunday’s game at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder are playoff games. The Lakers need to approach both games with this thought in mind and act accordingly.

The Spurs, embarrassed by the Lakers at home 98-84 on 4/11, came out ready to play and made a statement against L.A. on 4/17 at the Staples Center.

The Spurs made the necessary adjustments, put into play a game plan to increase the tempo, double-team Andrew Bynum & Pau Gasol hard, cut off the passing lanes to all inside passes, and got into transition as fast as possible making the Lakers big players run while trailing the action, unable to protect the rim.

Photo by Ronald Martinez | Getty Images

It’s now offiical.

Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times has reported that Kobe Bryant will play tonight vs. San Antonio:

Kobe's definitely playing tonight against San Antonio. He's at shoot-around now, practicing mid-range fade-aways.

April 20, 2012 10:16 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@Mike_Bresnahan

Mike Bresnahan

The Lakers were 5-2 without Bryant who sat out the last 7 games with a left shin injury.

L.A. has a one game lead on the Los Angeles Clippers in the Pacific Division with three games left in the regular season. (SAS,OKC,SAC)

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Voice of the Nation hosts, David Brickley, Jason Riley and Kevin Figgers discuss the Lakers top story-lines of the 2011-12 NBA Season.

Rundown

• How far will the Lakers go in the post-season? The STNTV crew debate.

Question of the Show: Where will the Lakers finish in the 2012 NBA playoffs? (Comment Below)

Videographer: Ryan King

Photo courtesy of Ezra Shaw, Getty Images

This is the first time we can say it this season – the Lakers cruised past their opponent. They actually cruised. They started the game steadily, built up their lead slowly, maintained their collective efforts on both sides of the court, and as hard as they played, didn’t appear to break a sweat (figuratively speaking of course).

Without gig men David Lee and Andrew Bogut on the floor, the Laker bigs had their fun in the paint. The Golden State Warriors are one the worst defensive teams in the league and one of the worst rebounders and it was on full display tonight. By halftime, Andrew Bynum had already scored 21 points because the Warriors simply didn’t have anyone who could challenge him, nor the Lakers’ excellent ball movement (led by Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace) and efforts on the glass. With every purple uniform engaged in tonight’s game, Golden State never had a chance.

The eight-point halftime lead ballooned to 21 points, and despite the Warriors not exactly playing like the Spurs, the Lakers won because they stuck to their game plan from beginning to end.

Photo courtesy of Harry How, Getty Images

We expected San Antonio would play much better than the last time these two teams met. We expected Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobli would combine for more than just the 27 points they scored as a unit a week ago. And we expected the Lakers to continue their excellent efforts of the last week and a half to last. Well, two out of three isn’t bad, I suppose. Unfortunately, those odds benefit the opposing team.

The Lakers led by six points in the first quarter, finishing off the opening 12 minutes one point ahead of their visitors; both teams shot a solid 55% each. Andrew Bynum had scored 13 points already and Tony Parker’s hot hand collected 11 points. The Lakers stuck to their game plan at the onset, scoring inside (14-8 advantage in the paint) and moving the ball (nine assists on 12 made field goals)….then came the rest of the game.

In the ensuing three quarters, the Spurs’ intensity went up and the Lakers’ efficiency went down, in more categories than one. When defensive leader, Metta World Peace headed to the bench with early foul trouble just seconds into the second quarter, he took the Lakers’ defense with him. What else could explain allowing the Spurs to shoot 71% from the field for 36 points? The Lakers shot 50% themselves, but compared to San Antonio, produced very little from it.

It just got progressively worse in the second half. The Spurs led by as much as 24 points, which wasn’t hard to do since the Lakers did very little to stop or counter their attack. The rebounding efforts were exactly even in number. The Lakers led in the paint by a four-point margin, but the Spurs hit seven from downtown to the Lakers’ two. The fast break points were the same (20 apiece), and the second chance points weren’t won by San Antonio by a large number either. In the end it call came down, as it usually does, to effort and execution, none of which the Lakers showed much.