I know we're focused on the Lakers at this point, but did you see Andre Miller's comments today after serving his suspension? He just doesn't get it. Among other difficult to comprehend things, Miller said that the suspension he received for leveling Blake Griffin "wasn't justified at all." Of course, the suspension had the additional impact of ending Miller's league high 632 game ironman streak, which no doubt had him miffed, but he probably should have considered before going into punt coverage mode.
I wouldn't disagree that the league is softer than when Miller came in a decade ago, but this play and the subsequent suspension certainly isn't evidence of that. If Miller is so adamant that this was just a normal every day garden variety play from the NBA of his youth, perhaps he'd like to give us one example - just one - of a player blindsiding an opponent at full speed in the last decade.
I felt like ranting about this, but chose not to because I'm a little tired of the whole thing, and didn't want to come across as "that blogger" who won't let something go. Fortunately, Brett Polakoff of FanHouse wrote the full post that I chose not to, pointing out the absurdity of Andre's assertions.
...running down the court at full speed and intentionally body-checking a guy to the floor like that is completely unacceptable, and something that absolutely warranted a suspension.
Thank you, Brett. I couldn't have said it better myself.