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New Jersey Nets: The Nets CEO used to be the NBA's dean of discipline, and his name is Rod Thorn. "I don't get involved in rhetoric," Thorn said after Knicks forward Tim Thomas said physical retaliation was in order. "The game is not played with rhetoric. The refs do a good job, and if anybody is stupid enough to do something crazy out there the league will take care of it." And he said the league was well aware of Thomas' threats. "They read all the stuff," said Thorn. "I feel very confident in what the league does. Historically, if you are going to make threats and follow through with it, the league will (take action)."

Houston Rockets: Jeff Van Gundy isn't asking too much of his team. "I know this: I know we can come out and play one great game," coach Jeff Van Gundy said in the Houston Chronicle. "We need to play one great game to get back in the series." And how hard can that be? "It's a lot shorter list what was done right," Van Gundy said. "You can go possession by possession. It was awful defense. It started with a lack of determination. Give L.A. credit. They played well offensively. We made far too many mistakes. We didn't show enough defensive discipline. We were down four with a minute to go (in the third quarter), and it goes to 10. It was a workable number. Then it goes to an unworkable number. What we're trying to do is make corrections from what we did wrong, come back and do it better. But we need the guys playing the big, big minutes to be very determined and disciplined."

Dallas Mavericks: Stop me if you've heard this one already. "I'm not going to call him a dirty player," Chris Webber said of Eduardo Najera in the Dallas Morning News. "But he tries to bend the rules and do what he can. I think he goes overboard sometimes." But he wasn't the only one in Sacramento who felt that way. Head coach Rick Adelman said "the only reason he's in the game is to beat the hell out of [Chris] Webber." But Webber thinks he has the answer. "The key to being a good player is knowing your faults," Webber said. "I think a fault of mine throughout my career has been not using my emotions in the right way. Teams like the [Los Angeles] Lakers a couple of years ago, they would have a guy foul me, bang a little bit harder. I've never taken kung fu, but I'm told you use a person's force against him. Now, I'll let a guy fight me all he wants and try to stay in my position. I know that's something that they're trying to do. They may be smart doing it. But it's not going to work."

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