Artest has it under control

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Artest has it under control
By Shira Springer, Globe Staff, 11/12/2003

INDIANAPOLIS -- Whenever the Celtics met the Pacers last season, it was
uncertain whether Ron Artest would be available. Suspensions, not injuries,
often kept him out of the lineup. This season, it has been a much different
story for the Indiana forward. He has no technical fouls and one Eastern
Conference Player of the Week award to his credit.

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"I just want to have a chance to see what my potential is and see how far the
team can go when everybody is level-headed -- see how far I can go when I'm
level-headed," said Artest, who missed a total of 12 games while serving
various suspensions last season. "When my career is over, I can go back and
play in the street and get dirty in the street. But right now, everybody's
trying to win a championship, so it's important that we keep our composure and
give it 100 percent and go as far as we can go."

Last night, Artest picked up just two personal fouls while collecting 8 points
and 6 rebounds.

To understand just how far Artest has come in his short time under coach Rick
Carlisle, consider what happened when Indiana played at Philadelphia Sunday.
The Sixers' Derrick Coleman committed a flagrant foul against Artest late in
the fourth quarter, chipping Artest's right front tooth and bloodying his lip.
But there was not a word from Artest, who calmly made two free throws. Shortly
thereafter, he also hit a 3-pointer, finishing with 30 points in the Pacers'
85-74 victory.

"He's playing really well at both ends of the floor," said Carlisle. "He's
playing with great composure. His game has taken a quantum leap in recent
weeks."

Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird also is impressed.

"We take Ronnie day to day," said Bird. "He handled [the situation in
Philadelphia] very well. The way that you beat these teams that do things like
that is you beat them on the court. You get up. You shoot your free throws.
And you beat them. You make sure you beat them.

"I've taken hard shots over the years and got frustrated, but if you can keep
yourself in the right frame of mind, you can use it to your advantage. That's
what Ronnie did.

"I don't know if he's done it consistently over the years, but so far so good
this year."

Bad blood?

Last night's contest was billed in Indiana as the resumption of a fierce
rivalry. Eric Williams believes the rivalry is the Pacers' creation, even
though he once spent an entire game engaging the Conseco Fieldhouse crowd in
serious trash-talking. "It's a rivalry because we met in the playoffs and
that's a young up-and-coming team and we like to call ourselves a young
up-and-coming team, too," said Williams, who had 8 points and 7 rebounds in 27
minutes last night. "More importantly, we know we knocked them out of the
playoffs when they were supposed to do a lot. They said a lot of things in the
paper before we played them in the playoffs. I guess that's how rivalries are
made." . . . Kenny Anderson reports that he's very happy in Indiana. "It's a
good fit right now," said the former Celtics guard, who had 2 points in 26
minutes last night. "Hopefully, we continue to win and do what we've been
doing. I think we will because everything is on point, meaning we're prepared.
We're playing close games and winning them." He's even happier when he looks
at the records of other teams he considered signing with, such as Orlando,
Atlanta, and Miami. Anderson did receive a courtesy call from Danny Ainge at
the start of the free agency period last July, but he could tell there was no
real interest. "I'm finished with that chapter," said Anderson.

Ref ripping

Jermaine O'Neal was not pleased with the officiating last night. "The
offensive fouls that they called on me were unbelievable," said O'Neal. "It's
kind of frustrating a little bit when these refs are taking away my
aggressiveness in the post. You've got guys that are afraid of guarding me and
flopping. And I'm telling [the officials] to watch the flop. I can't be
effective if I'm not on the court. I can't be effective if I can't make power
post-ups. Any other player would probably get that [respect]. But they're not
giving it to me. Maybe this market isn't big enough. Maybe they don't like
me." . . . Jumaine Jones and Walter McCarty recorded DNP-CDs for the second
straight game. Coach Jim O'Brien said before the game that he simply cannot
have a 12-man rotation.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx