In what is a potential second-round playoff matchup, the Lakers (54-20) answered the physical play of the Mavericks (53-22). The Lakers were up 90-73 at the 9:23 mark of the fourth quarter when the game got out of hand as tempers boiled over. Lakers guard Steve Blake was driving to the basket, only to have Jason Terry shove him out of bounds. Matt Barnes tried to get into the mix and shoved Terry. Mavericks assistant coach Terry Stotts, who tried to restrain Barnes, was then shoved into a courtside spectator by Barnes, who kept screaming "get off of me." When the dust settled, Terry, Blake, Barnes and Mavericks center Brendan Haywood were ejected. Minutes later the game had to be stopped when a spectator was kicked out of Staples for fighting and then another spectator tried to run onto the court, but was tackled by security before he could. In the final two minutes of the game, Lakers guard Shannon Brown was ejected when things got chippy between him and Mavericks forward Brian Cardinal.
After the dust settled, the Lakers went on to win their eighth straight and 16 of their last 17. They now have won 10 straight at home. The Lakers also swept the season series against the Mavericks, 2-1, and hold a 1.5 game lead on the Mavericks for the second seed in the Western Conference. More importantly with the Spurs (57-18) losing their fifth straight, the Lakers are now just 2.5 games back of San Antonio with eight games remaining. The two will meet on April 12.
In the other game of the night, Rajon Rondo led the Celtics with 22 points and had 14 assists, and Boston used a second-half shooting surge to hand the Spurs their fifth straight defeat by a count of 107-97 Thursday at AT&T Center. The Celtics (52-22) shot better than 60 percent in both the third and fourth quarters and also got big contributions from Paul Pierce (21 points, 11 rebounds) and Kevin Garnett (20 points on 9-of-12 shooting). After missing the last four games for the Spurs (57-18), Tim Duncan returned with 20 points and 13 rebounds.