Played out

Phil Jackson has nine championship rings. Kobe Bryant has three. Raja Bell has none, although he does have a one-game suspension to serve.

In a beautifully calculated bit of series-long gamesmanship, the Los Angeles Lakers' championship-experienced coach and star have taken Bell, the Phoenix Suns' best defender (not an oxymoron), out of Thursday's critical Game 6 in L.A. It was all so predictable you can hardly believe it worked.

Bell had to be on the Lakers' radar before this series even began. He is a player of great defensive talent (enough to actually slow Bryant) but also of great emotion (enough to react to five games of poking and prodding).

So the Lakers poked. And then prodded. Bryant got some elbows up; Jackson got Bell's ire up with biting comments from the bench.

In Tuesday's Game 5, Bell snapped, idiotically throwing Bryant to the floor in the fourth quarter of an easy Suns victory. He was ejected and then predictably suspended for one game, leaving Phoenix with no obvious answer for the most dangerous scorer in the NBA.

It was a matter of taking the Lakers' bait, hook, line and (team) sinker.

"I have no respect for him," Bell told reporters Wednesday of Bryant, who has played chippy all series. "I think he's a pompous, arrogant individual."

Like congeniality matters.

Then there was Bell, immediately after mauling Bryant, turning toward Jackson and, according to the Associated Press, screaming "That's your foul." Bell explained that he was still upset that, after being fouled earlier, Jackson had told him he "(expletive) deserved it."

"I thought that was kind of bush league from such a good coach," Bell said. "That was enough for me."

If you know anything about Phil Jackson, you know he doesn't waste words, time or energy on anything that doesn't help achieve the end game. Phil Jackson talks to Raja Bell for one reason – to get in his head so he'll do something that benefits the Lakers. In this case, something stupid like getting suspended.

This was Mind Games 101, even if no one on the Lakers is ever going to admit it. But this is why certain coaches and certain players figure out how to advance in the playoffs, even when they don't have the best talent.

This was two playoff veterans – ultra-competitive and proven winners – taking on an inexperienced opponent and getting him to melt down at the worst possible moment.

If you are into this kind of psych-out sports stuff, this was about as good as it gets.

"I got a bruised cheek here and I can barely open my jaw on this side, and that didn't come from nowhere," ranted Bell, citing hard fouls by Bryant that the refs never considered flagrant. "I felt like I'd had enough of that."

"When I get hit in the face multiple times, you've stepped across the line with me," he said. "It's not basketball anymore. It was basketball for four games, then when he hit me in the face, that was the last straw."

This might be the last straw for the Suns, who, while still capable of storming back and taking this series, sure have a tougher road now.

The best reaction on Tuesday night to Bell's idiocy was not Bryant's big grin but the expression of Steve Nash. His face was part disgust and part disbelief that five months of hard work and overcoming adversity might have just gone up in smoke.

Phoenix has plenty of reasons to complain about the refs in this series, but that doesn't mean you wonder "What would Ronny (Artest) do?"

The Suns did everything right this season to shake off the loss of Amare Stoudemire and wind up the second seed in the West. They absolutely maximized themselves.

But there is a difference between the regular season and the playoffs and Jackson and Bryant know that as well as anyone. A playoff series is, at times, a battle of attrition, emotion and maturity. It isn't just speed and skill. Brains often overwhelm brawn.

Without laughing, Bryant and Jackson even publicly implored the NBA not to suspend Bell.

"I let him play. … Maybe he wasn't hugged enough as a child," Bryant smiled.

Kobe smiles a lot these days. Smiles about the way his team is playing. Smiles about his new daughter. Smiles over his restored relationship with Jackson.

Smiles that his team, which many thought wouldn't even make the playoffs, is on the verge of Round 2, where an historic matchup against the down-the-hallway Los Angeles Clippers await.

He was smiling big on Tuesday after getting hammered, brushing off the foul and playing up to the Phoenix crowd. He had every reason to. Raja Bell fell for the oldest trick in the book and took himself out of the most crucial game of the series.

Just how you can imagine Kobe and Phil dreamed it up.