World Peace of course elbowed Harden at the end of the regular season in what was one of the dirtiest plays in the NBA this season. He never really apologized for the act claiming it was an accident.

During Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night, World Peace Tweeted this about Harden.

No brain All beard

— Metta WorldPeace (@MettaWorldPeace) June 18, 2012

It was right after Harden tried to draw an offensive foul on LeBron James late in the fourth quarter.

World Peace has been critical of Harden as a flopper ever since the elbowing incident. He even suggested that Harden may have flopped some from his elbow.

So we know World Peace is crazy and has something against Harden but saying “no brain” is a little mean. It’s probably harmless because in the end that’s who World Peace is but he just comes off as stupid Tweeting something like that.

World Peace and Harden have been connected ever since World Peace connected with a vicious elbow on Harden late in the regular season. World Peace was suspended seven games and returned to the court for the second time in Game 1 in Oklahoma City Monday night.

World Peace said he wouldn’t shake Harden’s hand before the game because he doesn’t shake “substitutes’” hands. As fate would have it, the two were matched up often during the Thunder’s 29-point Game 1 win.

This elbow wasn’t as bad by World Peace but a sign that he isn’t backing down in any way from his characteristic physical style of play.

World Peace even seemed more locked in while hearing the boo birds making two 3-pointers in the opening quarter of Game 1. World Peace also hurt the Thunder while playing against the second unit that Harden leads by banging down low and using his strength.

Harden and the Thunder got the best of the Lakers in Game 1 and Harden played well himself. He scored 17 points and was aggressive getting to the line 10 times and making nine of those attempts.

Expect Mike Brown to look to continue putting World Peace on the court when Harden is out there. The Thunder often go small with Harden in and he essentially is matched up with forwards when he is in.

The Lakers don’t go small much and usually start Pau Gasol in the second and fourth quarters at the four. The Lakers had success with Gasol and World Peace out there with their second unit and that will mean more of World Peace and Harden guarding each other.

As of right now it seems to be the only edge LA could have going inside to World Peace. If some of these next few games are close and resemble physical playoff basketball, don’t be surprised if World Peace and Harden continue to exchange chippy plays.

World Peace elbowed James Harden in the head at the end of the regular season and was dealt a 7-game suspension for the act. He returned to action for the first time since the incident Saturday night for the Lakers’ Game 7 win against the Denver Nuggets.

World Peace never apologized to Harden in any way unless you count Twitter and still stands by saying it was an accident when it clearly wasn’t.

World Peace now has caused some more stir with his recent comments about Harden and the Thunder.

“I don’t shake hands with substitutes,” World Peace said. “I shake everybody’s hand before the game, but Oklahoma City, they don’t shake hands. Only some of them, but I don’t think they really shake hands before the game. Kendrick Perkins and now (Russell) Westbrook don’t shake hands either. (Russell) used to shake hands, but now he don’t shake hands anymore.”

World Peace thinks he’s making a jab at Harden because he comes off the bench. Like the Sixth Man of the Year winner isn’t talented enough to start in this league or something.

Harden said earlier this week on the Dan Patrick show that he won’t look to shake hands with World Peace before the game either or speak to him at all.

The stage is set for the Thunder and Lakers. There are many storylines and the return of World Peace against this team is at the top of the list.

One thing is for sure is that the Thunder are going to come out very motivated against this team not just because of World Peace. They’ve been on a mission all season and one of the hungriest young teams in the league.

They know that knocking out the Los Angeles Lakers is part of taking that next step to becoming a championship team.

By the end of the series I’m sure that the Lakers and their fans will wish that World Peace would have elbowed Harden just a little bit harder.

Metta World Peace has finally spoken (not counting Twitter) about the elbow he delivered to James Harden last Sunday, earning him a seven-game suspension.

World Peace still sticks by that it was unintentional and that he was way too emotional in the moment.

The video doesn’t lie though. He meant to land the elbow on Harden. I do believe though that it was not as maliciously intended as it appeared. He totally lost himself in the moment and we know he is a crazy person. I believe that somehow he actually could have not known exactly what he was doing at the moment.

It’s unfair to every other player in the NBA to make an excuse for this though no matter what was going on in World Peace’s head. What goes on in his head is crazy stuff and it makes him the kind of guy who could do something like this on accident. Something that could have been much more horrible.

If Harden is facing World Peace and the elbow caught him in the jaw or eye this is a much bigger deal. The blow could have been a lot worse and World Peace is lucky in some regard that it wasn’t worse.

World Peace’s suspension will likely mean that he will return in round two of the playoffs in Oklahoma City. He will receive more boo’s than anyone has this season and deservedly so.

World Peace will miss the final game of the regular season for the Lakers against the Kings and the first six playoff games. If the Lakers win their first round series in less than seven games then that means that World Peace’s return would likely be against Oklahoma City in the second round in the Chesapeake Arena.

The suspension number falls right in between what many were projecting. I guess that makes it feel right since 3-4 games would feel like nothing and 10 games is a lot.

I personally would not have minded to see World Peace suspended for the rest of the season but I can understand how that isn’t the case.

Harden is still being evaluated by the NBA and will not play tonight against the Kings.

Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

Oklahoma City Thunder (1-game losing streak)
106.9 Offensive Efficiency (2nd)
99.7 Defensive Efficiency (9th)
95.6 Pace (6th)
56.6 True Shooting % (1st)
51.4 Rebound Rate (5th)

Sacramento Kings (1-game winning streak)
100.5 Offensive Efficiency (22nd)
106.8 Defensive Efficiency (28th)
97.3 Pace (1st)
50.8 True Shooting % (27th)
48.8 Rebound Rate (24th)

The games don’t matter anymore for the Thunder. They have two games left in the regular season but they are locked in to being the two-seed in the Western Conference no matter the results.

James Harden will not play tonight after receiving a vicious elbow from Metta World Peace two days ago in Staples Center.

The Thunder probably won’t completely rest their players tonight – Scott Brooks has said before that he has no intentions of doing this – but don’t expect 40-plus minutes from Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook either.

There is something to play for however and that is Durant and his chances at winning the scoring title for the third straight season. Durant passed Kobe Bryant on Sunday and is now 0.05 points ahead of Bryant in the race. It’s the closes scoring race since George Gervin and David Thompson.

The NBA has a history of players putting up video game-numbers when scoring races are like this but it is unlikely that Durant and Bryant are as motivated to win it. They’re more concerned with the playoffs at this point.

The Thunder have beaten the Kings twice in the past few weeks and are looking to win the season series 3-1 tonight with a victory.

The Kings are kind of in tank mode so a win won’t be too tough to come by, even without Harden.

These next two games really don’t matter though for the Thunder so while the Lakers game had a playoff-feel to it, these next two will be far from that.

It was a horrible scene and simply inexplicable. World Peace became Ron Artest again for that moment. He seemed to completely forget where he was and what he was doing. That can happen to crazy people which he most certainly is.

World Peace was immediately ejected and will face a suspension for sure. If it is something like 10 games then his return could be during a potential second round matchup between the Thunder and Lakers.

Harden is going to be evaluated by the NBA before he is cleared to return. The blow was extremely forceful and concussion-like symptoms seem likely.

Here are the Thunder players’ reactions to the play.

Russell Westbrook: “I didn’t really see what happened. I just saw James got hit in the head. I just saw the ending of it. That’s all I saw. I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m pretty sure I’ll see it. That’s going to be on TV.”

Kevin Durant: “I couldn’t really get a good look at it. I’m just happy my teammate’s all right. It was a bad play. Hopefully Ron didn’t do it intentionally or have any malicious intentions on that. But it is what it is. We got to move past that. (Harden) felt good. Obviously, we had to make sure he was all right going down the line. Our trainers and stuff do a great job and we believe in them 100 percent. I’m looking forward to James being back out there.”

Kendrick Perkins: “Actions were taken. The consequences were there. It was a Flagrant 2 and he got thrown out of the game. It happens. Sometimes it’s an intense game. Metta World Peace, he’s a good dude so I know he wouldn’t try to hurt nobody. It happens and we just hope to have James back for the next game.”

Thabo Sefolosha: “During the review I saw it. Stupid play. Stupid play. We don’t need that.”

Scott Brooks: “It was a bad play. There’s no way around it. It’s a dangerous play. It’s not a play that should be involved in basketball. And it’s unfortunate it happened. I know Ron, but unfortunately it did happen. You can’t do that. That’s unacceptable.”

Kobe Bryant: “I can’t speculate (how many games),” Bryant said. “I’m sure he’ll have some type of a suspension. And James, I hope he’s OK. I haven’t heard anything about how he’s doing, but he’s one of my favorite players in the league, one of my young boys, so I hope he’s doing all right.”

Here’s what Metta World Peace said via Twitter: “I just watched the replay again….. Oooo.. My celebration of the dunk really was too much… Didn’t even see James ….. Omg… Looks bad.”

Not sure how World Peace thinks we’re going to believe this was an innocent act.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook shot terribly in Los Angeles as the Thunder fell 114-106 to the Lakers in double overtime.

Durant went 11-of-34 from the field and scored 35 points. He missed the potential game-winning shot at the end of regulation when the Lakers played him straight up and the stepback trey did not fall. In the overtimes he had multiple open looks not fall.

Kobe Bryant seemed to make all of the big shots including two big threes in the fourth quarter and another few big jumpers in the overtimes. Bryant finished with 26 points on 9-for-26 shooting but his shooting percentage and the Lakers’ end-game execution seemed Spurs-like compared to Oklahoma City’s.

Westbrook went 3-for-22 from the floor and scored 14 points. He stayed aggressive down the stretch though and made some big free throws for the Thunder by driving hard to the rim that helped extend the game.

James Harden was the victim of the dirtiest play of the year via Metta World Peace. One of the more exciting NBA games of the season let us forget about the cheap shot but Harden was of course noticeably absent for the Thunder late.

Harden’s importance of being the calming force and guy who can make smart plays with the basketball was absent in the second half. The Thunder need him to help steady the ship on offense when the game turns into what it was today and without him, the Thunder looked like the way they did last year in the playoffs.

The Lakers did not go with Andrew Bynum down the stretch and instead rode the hot hand of Jordan Hill who scored 14 points and had 15 rebounds (six offensive).

Pau Gasol also was great on the offensive glass with six of his 14 rebounds coming there to go with 20 points.

The Lakers did not as much beat the Thunder as the Thunder beat themselves. Sure, Bryant made some clutch shots that were needed to win but Durant got very good looks that he missed and no one is used to seeing those shots not fall.

Westbrook seems to always have his worst games on national television and while he hasn’t been playing very well of late, today was certainly one of his worst in awhile at a time when they desperately needed him with Harden out.

Harden may have shown some signs of concussion-like symptoms according to sideline reports during the game. The blow was extremely forceful and probably not anticipated by Harden which makes it worse. If he misses any time because of this it will be devastating for this team especially with him playing so well the last two games (averaging 30.0 points).

The Thunder drop to 46-18 on the year and still take the season series against the Lakers 2-1. They are now a full game back of the Spurs for the top seed meaning a Thunder-Lakers second round series is looking to be pretty likely. It may work out better though for Oklahoma City since the Spurs would like have to play Memphis in the second round if the seedings remain the same.

The Thunder will play their final two games at home this season with the next coming Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings who they’ve beaten twice in the last few weeks.

Metta World Peace elbowed James Harden in the back of the head following a dunk and celebrating it.

In real time it looked like World Peace hadn’t done it on purpose, yet still flagrant and unnecessary. On the replay it’s clear that he had bad intentions with it.

We unfortunately got a flashback of Ron Artest when Serge Ibaka approached World Peace to speak his mind and World Peace looked like he wanted to fight.

World Peace completely lost control and lost himself on the play. It was inexcusable and very surprising. You want to like World Peace and he’s come a long way since the Malice at the Palace but a play like this makes it tough.

The blow was a very physical one and Harden will definitely feel it. Hopefully it isn’t serious and he can return soon.