Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant provided further details of a tumultuous postgame setting Monday after the 94-91 loss to Washington.

Bryant was livid when Odom was out of place for a play at the end of the game. Bryant ended up losing the ball after getting trapped on the sideline.

Bryant toppled a TV monitor and angrily addressed his teammates, Odom in particular, inside the locker room.

"Didn't come close to fighting," Odom said. "It was just a disagreement on what should have happened at the end of the game. That was it. On the bus, we talked. On the plane, talked. It was over."

Said Bryant: "We're more than good. That's my guy."

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has been suspended for two games without pay for by the NBA for elbowing Memphis' Mike Miller in the throat, Stu Jackson, the league's senior vice president of basketball operations, announced.

Bryant was given a flagrant foul I penalty for the incident, which occurred with 8:24 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 100-99 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at the Staples Center. The league decided to upgrade the call to a flagrant foul II, which is assessed for "unnecessary and excessive contact."

Bryant will serve his suspension Sunday, when the Lakers host the Utah Jazz, and Tuesday at Utah.

Bryant sustained an inch-long cut near his left eye early in the third quarter Wednesday night after taking an elbow from a driving Miller.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Bryant as shouting, "I'll be back" as he left the court for treatment. In the fourth quarter, when Miller drove down the lane, Bryant drilled Miller with an elbow.

"Any player that was going to come down the lane at that particular time, I was going to let them know that they just can't walk through here," Bryant told reporters after the game. "I think we as a team have to do a better job of establishing that, and me as the leader of the ballclub, I have to take initiative to do that.

A source close to the Lakers told ESPN.com that Lamar Odom had received reassurance from the team, which told him he had not been included in any trade offers made to the Indiana Pacers.

The Lakers were apparently responding to rumors floating around the league that Los Angeles had become open to the idea of trading Odom in a Ron Artest deal.

This whole Raptor-Knick, Rose-Hardaway-draft pick thing got a whole lot murkier this week.

As anyone with Internet access knows, the talk of trading Toronto's Jalen Rose for New York's Penny Hardaway is still hot, with the stumbling block apparently being the Raptors' aversion to tossing in a first-round pick in the deal.

The big benefit for the Raptors would be about $17 million (U.S.) salary cap relief next summer; Hardaway is hardly going to turn into a regular rotation guy with the Raptors.

If the pick would be Denver's, which Toronto got in the Vince Carter trade a year ago, news that Marcus Camby of the Nuggets is out indefinitely after surgery on his finger clouds the issue greatly.

With Kenyon Martin bothered by a bad knee, Nene out for the season probably after a knee operation and now Camby on the shelf for a while, the Nuggets will be hard-pressed to hang on and make the playoffs in the Western Conference, which would give the Raptors two lottery picks next June.

If Jalen Rose rumours aren't enough on their own, he's also now linked to Ron Artest and his imminent departure from Indiana.

Yesterday, it was Rose to the Lakers, either Devean George or Slava Medvedenko to Toronto along with Austin Croshere from the Pacers.

It's not likely to happen, according to Raptor sources; just the next in a long list of Rose rumours.

Mark Stevens, the agent for Ron Artest, said Wednesday about the possibility of playing for the Lakers, "We will embrace anyone who wants to embrace us."

But Stevens did not have any feel for whether the Lakers will put together a trade package attractive enough to acquire Artest.

After watching forward Lamar Odom miss crucial 3-point shots in the final minute against Miami and Washington, Lakers coach Phil Jackson returned to sender a question Wednesday about Odom's shooting in late-game situations.

"What percentage do you think Lamar shoots from 3-point range?" Jackson asked.

The answer, before the Lakers game against Memphis, was 33.3 percent. Then Jackson factored in the fourth-quarter pressure and the fact that Odom now has missed three such shots this season. He came to the conclusion that it's time to try something different.

"He hasn't shown that he makes that shot at the end of the game," Jackson said. "We talked about that, about the fact that he's taken a few of the 3-pointers at the end of the game.

"It's time to penetrate and find somebody else if that's not a shot you're making or you're comfortable with. You have to know that. He responded to it."

The Grizzlies never led the Lakers -- until the overtime.

After Damon Stoudamire's pair of 3-pointers in the final minute of regulation drew Memphis even, the Grizzlies outscored Los Angeles 10-2 to begin the extra period, then held on for a wild 100-99 victory Wednesday night.

The Lakers' Kobe Bryant, who scored 45 points on 13-of-37 shooting, missed a layup in the waning seconds, teammate Chris Mihm's putback rolled off the rim, and both teams were scrambling for the loose ball at the final buzzer.

The victory was only the Grizzlies' second in the 20 games they've played on the Lakers' court.

Bryant, gashed over his left eye in the second quarter when Miller pushed him in the face with his hand while driving, had three stitches to close the cut.

Bryant was called for a flagrant foul with 8:24 to play for elbowing Miller in the face as Miller drove again.

"Any player that was going to come down the lane at that point in time, I was going to let him know that he just can't walk through there," Bryant said. "I think we as a team have to do a better job of establishing that. And me, as a leader of the ballclub, I've got to take the initiative to do that -- and hopefully, everybody will see that.

"This being our home court, people come here and think it's Hollywood and all sorts of stuff, so they think they'll come down [the lane] and look pretty and shoot jump shots and dunk the ball and finger-roll the ball and do all sorts of cute stuff. And we've got to stop that."

The New Jersey Nets' Vince Carter and the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Dec. 19 through Sunday, Dec. 25.

Carter averaged 39.3 points on .485 shooting, 6.0 assists and 7.3 rebounds to lead the Nets to a 3-0 week with wins over the Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando and Miami. Carter tied his career-high with 51 points in the Nets' 95-88 win at Miami.

Bryant led the Lakers to a 2-1 week, averaging 40.0 points on .468 shooting, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in matchups against Dallas, Orlando and Miami. Bryant scored an NBA season-high 62 points against the Mavericks in only 33 minutes. Since 1960, only three other NBA players scored 60-plus points in fewer than 40 minutes: Jerry West (63 points in 39 minutes on Jan. 17, 1962), George Gervin (63 points in 33 minutes on April 9, 1978) and Karl Malone (61 points in 33 minutes on Jan. 27, 1990). Additionally, Bryant's 62 points were the most that any player has scored in the league in over 11 years. He also registered his fifteenth and sixteenth 30-plus-point games of the season.

The city's least favorite son returned to MCI Center last night, and Kwame Brown expected more of Washington.

Brown, the former No. 1 pick for the Washington Wizards who was practically booed out of town after his fourth less-than-inspiring season, said he had expected "the Juwan Howard treatment" -- as in the deafening sound of boos once reserved for Howard, who was unable to live up to lofty expectations after signing a $100 million contract and, ironically, also wore the No. 5 for Washington.

Instead, Brown said the reception paled in comparison to what he had seen before. "That was weak!" Brown said after he was lustily booed for most of the 19 minutes 49 seconds he spent on the floor during the Los Angeles Lakers' 94-91 loss to the Wizards. "It was worse than that when I was here."

There's trash talk, and then there's Gary Payton's talk.
Sunday, Payton was at his best -- or worst, depending on your perspective. The target of his verbal jabs was former Heat forward Lamar Odom. And Odom didn't take well to Payton's chatter.

Payton received a technical foul in the third quarter for his wrangling with Odom, after which Odom winked toward his bench as if he had the situation under control.

But the back-and-forth banter continued for the remainder of the game, to the point where the two had to be separated at midcourt after the game was over. Odom said Payton crossed the line of good sportsmanship with some of his comments.

''He's an extremely disrespectful young man,'' Odom said. ``I'm not going to repeat anything he said, but he's extremely disrespectful.

``It's dudes like that, that's why things happen off the court between players and their friends and things like that. He needs to watch how he talks to other men. It's a difference between competing and how you talk to another man.''

Payton said he was just doing what he normally does, trying to get into the minds of his competition.

''You just keep talking and keep playing,'' Payton said. ``Some of the players, their mentality is they want to get mad and take it personal against you, then they start thinking about you all the time. That's where my mental toughness is, because I don't care. I can talk, and I'm not going to worry about you anymore.''