MORE SWEET, CREAMY JUSTICE: Official who blew call suspended for three games. AND summoned back to New York for a good talking-to.

Vlade likes it:

"If you cover up for the referees, you only make things worse between them and the players," Divac said before Thursday night's game. "But if you admit the mistake, players are going to give the refs more respect. Watch, refs will get more respect around the league if they keep admitting mistakes."

On more the cosmic justice front, Sac beat Lal last night when Kobe took it upon himself not to play to win but to play to shove a dagger into the heart of the Kings (he opted for a three instead of passing the ball to get the two and the tie and send it to overtime.) And of course he missed and the Lakers lost because Kobe wanted Big Dramatic Win and not Conservative Basketball Win. Yes, he got wacked on the head by Doug Christie--though it looked like it was right after his release--but what did he think, the refs were going to give him the chance to win it on the line? Of course not; that's why you don't put your team in that position at that point in the game. Barkley said he should've passed and I concur. And I wish TNT would get rid of Magic, his blatant Laker-love--always talking about what "we" have to do--is, to put in Rumsfeld-speak, extremely unhelpful to a intelligent analysis of a basketball game.