Jackson Says Timeout Was Innocent

Coach Phil Jackson denied that he was thumbing his nose at the Phoenix Suns or Coach Scott Skiles when he called a timeout with 18.4 seconds remaining in Sunday’s Game 4 loss at Phoenix.

Skiles immediately responded at the tail end of the Sun rout by calling his own timeout, and Jackson called another one with 14.7 seconds left.

On Monday, after joking that he was trying to make sure that his own commercial was played during the NBC broadcast, Jackson said he called the first timeout to protest a foul call.

“Phoenix, in their own mind-set, thought I was insulting them, which is totally not what I intended it to be,” Jackson said.

“But Skiles is hard-headed. So [after Skiles’ timeout,] we came back with our own time. . . . to get that commercial in for sure.”

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Laker forward Rick Fox was thrown out in the late-going Sunday after fouling Cliff Robinson twice, and has not commented on that incident since.

“It was odd,” Jackson said. “It was very different.”

Jackson did not disagree with Skiles’ notion that Fox might have let his frustrations over his reduced minutes in this series bubble over.

Fox, who averaged 17.9 minutes during the regular season, played only nine minutes in Game 4 and is averaging 11 minutes in the series.

“Well, I put [rookie Devean] George in [to start the fourth quarter],” Jackson said.

“We needed someone to take care of [Shawn] Marion’s activity level on the boards. . . .

“George is a three-point shooter with a certain kind of ability that I like to see get an opportunity to play, especially in a situation like that. So I used that opportunity.

“Rick may have registered it wrong, but he didn’t want to talk about it after the game, so I didn’t belabor the point.”

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Starting power forward A.C. Green had his third consecutive tough road playoff game Sunday, scoring 0 points and grabbing three rebounds in 15 minutes, but Jackson said he thought Green played better than he had in Game 3.

In the Lakers’ four road playoff games, Green has made only two of 10 field-goal tries, and averaged 1.5 points and 3.3 rebounds. In the last three, Green is 0 for 5 shooting and has grabbed a combined four rebounds.

“I’ve shortened his time up a little bit on the road, so that’s some of the reason he hasn’t been as productive,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he probably would not insert backup Robert Horry, who played 28 minutes in Game 4, into the starting lineup.