Playoffs 2000:Wallace, Sabonis disappear for Blazers

Wallace, Sabonis disappear for Blazers
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- They went about it in different ways, butRasheed Wallace and Arvydas Sabonis both disappeared at the worst possible time for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Wallace, who led the NBA in technical fouls with a record 38 in the regular season, was ejected in the third quarter of Portland's 109-94 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.

"It definitely hurt us," Detlef Schrempf said. "We need him to be a threat for us."

Sabonis stayed around to the end but had no points and one rebound in 33 minutes, depriving the Blazers of his much-needed outside shooting.

Their ineffectiveness, coupled with the Blazers being outscored 37-16 in the second quarter, turned the game into a rout after both teams played evenly in the first 12 minutes of the Western Conference finals opener.

"Right now we'll just be happy to get out of this building. Forget about the way we played," Scottie Pippen said.

Ironically, Wallace didn't get tossed for displaying his usual fiery temperament. But him staring daggers at referee Ron Garretson spoke volumes.

Garretson, who whistled the first technical when Wallace was out of the game sitting on the floor in the second period, ejected Wallace at 6:43 of the third period. Moments before, Wallace had received a delay of game warning at the free-throw line.

Steve Smith ran up in protest, but Garretson, who was miked for the TV telecast, explained that he twice told Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy that Wallace should "stop staring and trying to intimidate me. If he does it again, he's gone."

"Rasheed didn't say anything and he just stared at him," Smith said. "He (Garretson) asked him not to stare at him and then he gave him a tech."

A smiling Wallace didn't want to talk later.

"I ain't giving you all fuel for the fire," he said. "I ain't saying nothing."

Brian Grant expressed surprise that a player could earn a technical for not speaking.

"That's a first. I never heard of that before," he said. "We'll be more conscious of the way we look at the refs."

Pippen defended Wallace, saying he's treated differently by the referees.

"We don't think a lot of times it's Rasheed's fault. The officials take it kind of harsh because of the way that he speaks, but he's not going to change the way that he speaks," Pippen said. "When he talks to you, he talks with an aggression.

"They tend to be a little bit more aggressive at giving him a technical more so than a lot of other guys in the league. It's the way Rasheed talks sometimes that gets him in trouble rather than what he says," he said.

Dunleavy was less understanding about getting 16 minutes out of Wallace rather than his average of 35 minutes.

"We can't have an All-Star sitting in the locker room half the game," he said. "At some point, he has to understand that."

Wallace finished with 11 points and three rebounds -- off his averages of 16.4 points and seven rebounds.

Sabonis, a 7-foot-3, 282-pounder who averaged 11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds in the regular season, came up with nearly nothing.

"Sabs can't give us those type of numbers. He wasn't as aggressive as he usually is," said Bonzi Wells, who had 17 points off the bench. "If we get him going, then everyone else will be get aggressive."