By Lisa Dillman and Mark Medina
Los Angeles Times
According to a team spokesman, the Clippers have been notified by the NBA that Sunday's technical fouls and accompanying $4,000 fines have been rescinded for Lakers forward Ron Artest and Clippers forward Blake Griffin during a late-game scuffle in the Lakers' 99-92 loss to the Clippers.
Meanwhile, Lakers forward Lamar Odom and Clippers guard Baron Davis will each still receive one technical foul along with the $4,000 ejection fee.
The situations started with 5.7 seconds left in the game when Griffin positioned himself rather physically in front of Odom to get the rebound after Randy Foye's free throw. Explaining afterward that he took offense to Griffin playing with that kind of intensity with the result all but official, Odom tugged on Griffin's jersey and continued to do so after Foye made the free throw. After Odom jawed at Griffin, the Clippers forward put his hands up to indicate that he didn't want the altercation to escalate.
That prompted Davis to run cross-court and enter the fray to separate Odom from Griffin, pushing Odom slightly away from his teammates. Odom then put his hands on Davis' arm, prompting Artest to pull Odom away.
The sequence resulted in the ejections of Odom, Artest, Griffin and Davis, rulings by the referees that Lakers Coach Phil Jackson strongly questioned after the game.
"I don't know how they make their decisions -- whimsically, I think," Jackson said. "I can see Lamar and Griffin or whatever. But Ron -- that was ridiculous."
