Mike Freeman

BOSTON -- The Los Angeles Lakers can't help themselves. They are totally, completely, absolutely mocking the injury to Paul Pierce. They're all but calling him a big, fat fake.

When asked by a reporter about the Pierce drama, Kobe Bryant started laughing.

Asked if Pierce's injury was a Willis Reed moment (which it wasn't), Phil Jackson, always the cute one, ever the damn comedian, said: "Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think Willis Reed missed a whole half and three quarters almost of a game and literally had to have a shot, a horse shot, three or four of them in his thigh to come back out and play. Paul got carried off and was back on his feet in a minute. I don't know if the angels visited him at halftime or in that time-out period that he had or not, but he didn't even limp when he came back out on the floor. I don't know what was going on there. Was Oral Roberts back there in their locker room? But he certainly carried some energy back on the floor for them."

Was Pierce really hurt or was he was pulling a Jack Nicholson?

Rivers said both Pierce and Kendrick Perkins (high ankle sprain) were both still ailing. The good news for Boston is that there's no game until Sunday. They have time to heal. Still I wouldn't count on either of them and at the very least they're going to be ailing badly.

People who believe Pierce earned a Golden Globe didn't watch him walk around after the game. His limp was pretty pronounced.

Unless he was faking that as well.

"Oh, I don't care," said Rivers of the skepticism. "Aren't we skeptics anyway now about everything? So what the heck; let it begin. Let it begin. Lee Harvey Oswald did it."