RON- RON

GOOD LAKERS WIN, STILL NEED TO GET MORE FLUID ON BOTH ENDS OF THE COURT---

LOS ANGELES -- Ron Artest was supposed to give the Lakers a tough defender who could get his own shot. Who would've thought his most salient contribution at this early stage in the season would be to provide a reasonable, clarifying bit of perspective.
"I always look at it as, 10 years from now you won't be thinking about the first three games," Artest said. "You'll think about the big-picture games. That's why it's really hard for me to get frustrated about not playing great."
He was far from great through the first two games of his five-year contract with the Lakers, and in this tweeting/live-blogging era where champions and MVPs are based on who wins the opening tip, there were rumblings that the Lakers made a mistake bringing him in and letting Trevor Ariza go. Artest looked uncertain on offense, made 4 of 16 field goals and provided a total of 13 points in 64 minutes. He took out his frustrations with silly fouls during the Lakers' loss to Dallas on Friday night. And not all of his ineffectiveness could be traced to learning a new system and new teammates; he was 3 of 9 from the foul line after making only 58 percent of his free throws during the preseason. Those are inexcusable numbers at any point in the season for an 11th-year pro.
Just to bring additional angst to Lakerland, Ariza scored 33 points for the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.
"He had 33?" Artest said. "Oh, that's great. I didn't know he could score 30."
Given that backdrop, it was time for Artest to show antsy Lakers fans what he could do on Sunday night. So Artest dumped an ice bucket (metaphorically; with Artest you have to be specific) on Hawks guard Joe Johnson after Johnson flambéed the Lakers for 18 points in the first nine minutes of the game.
Give an assist to Hawks coach Mike Woodson, who benched Johnson with 2:39 left in the first quarter, when he was in a 7-for-8 shooting zone. Johnson didn't return until the 7:28 mark of the second quarter, and with Artest taking over the defensive duties from Kobe Bryant, Johnson made only one of his final eight field goal attempts.
"I told Kobe, 'Let me get him,'" Artest said.
With Johnson taken out of the picture, the rest of the Hawks struggled to score. The Lakers' defense came up with seven steals in the third quarter, leading to unopposed baskets at the other end. The Hawks, so dependent on their defense to create transition baskets, seemed to stop trying as hard.
"We've got to have some type of presence," Johnson said. "We're too soft. We're giving way too many layups."
The Lakers nearly ran the Hawks out of the building before the reserves blew enough of a 24-point lead to force Phil Jackson to bring his starters back into an eventual 118-110 victory.
Bryant scored 41 points, but we've seen that before. Ninety-six other times, to be precise. This night was about Artest's initiation into the Lakers, finally making contributions, more than can be measured in his 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.
"The effect of the ability of Ron to defend tonight, it was a nice thing to happen for him," Jackson said. "I'm sure he's going to have offensive games with bigger numbers than that, but it was nice to get him back in the offensive flow."
Artest keeps saying he doesn't need to be a 20-point scorer. He has been able to move the ball in the offense, even if he hasn't always found the right time to shoot, nor was he on the mark before he started getting easy layups and dunks Sunday night.
"The main thing is playing hard," he said. "The shots don't mean nothing. You want to make open shots, but the main thing is play hard, play within the offense, know your role. I'm not going to expect myself to take 20 shots a game like I used to take. Some days I might only take three shots."
Later, after the media crowd dispersed, Artest reached into the cold bucket he was soaking his feet in, grabbed chunks of ice and crushed them in his hands as he talked about how you really should judge him: by the numbers the big-time scorers produce against him. Carmelo Anthony averaged 15 points against Artest's Rockets last season; I'm already counting the days until the new, apparently unstoppable Anthony goes against Artest in Denver on Nov. 13.
That will be a better time to assess this summer's Artest/Ariza swap. Until then, gulp, take a lesson from Artest, wait to render judgment, and don't hate upon others.
"I hope Trevor averages 20-plus this year," Artest said.