Western rivals have become physical

The Lakers and Timberwolves have a pivotal Game 3 tonight.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It was just last week that Lakers forward Rick Fox said he'd rather have "a nice, subdued series with Minnesota" rather than face the hated Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers got the Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals, just as Fox wished.
But so much for nice or subdued.
Things turned physical -- and more -- in the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Minneapolis, with more of the same expected in Game 3 tonight in Los Angeles.
"The higher the stakes, the quicker the chippiness comes," Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders said Monday.
"Minnesota kind of upped the ante," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "They came out to play a physical game, and they were good at it. Now there are some things that are personal about this series."
Fined for foul
Karl Malone was fined $7,500 for the flagrant foul he delivered on Minnesota's Darrick Martin late in the Timberwolves' 89-71 victory Sunday night that evened the series 1-1.
Malone, known for his physical play throughout a 19-year NBA career, left no doubt his hard foul was no accident.
"You're going to hit, you're going to be hit," Malone said. "You go on from there. I'm not going to let you hit a teammate of mine."
Malone's hard foul came shortly after Lakers guard Derek Fisher and several teammates reacted strongly to Wally Szczerbiak's foul on Fisher.
The Lakers thought Szczerbiak came in too high with his elbows against Fisher.
"We all got acquainted pretty fast," Fisher said. "I would definitely say it's personal now."
Seven technical fouls
The teams combined for seven technical fouls in the fourth quarter before Malone floored Martin.
"The most important thing is this game of basketball is not made up of side shows," Malone said. "The friction's over. You don't carry it over. It's just one game."
That's one man's opinion.
"I think it's only the beginning," Saunders said. "When you play a team two times in three days, you start to not like each other. We played hard, not dirty."
A physical game is just fine with Shaquille O'Neal -- and little wonder, since he's just about always the biggest and strongest player on the court.
"I think it's more to our favor, playing like that," O'Neal said. "If they want to play football, we can play football. It wasn't really that physical to me. It's something I'm used to.
"Now we know what kind of game they're going to play. We made some adjustments. It will be a different game [tonight]."