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This one clearly mattered. By the final period, there threatened to be more technical fouls and near-fights than basketball plays. The basketball wasn't that bad, either. Spectacular, actually, if you are measuring intensity. The Lakers will measure it any way you want. Led by that old hand, Kobe Bryant, they prevailed in a rough and rugged fourth period to win, 96-91.

Earlier in the day, the Clippers' Chauncey Billups, also an old hand at such things, was asked if he expected the game to be chippy, as the first one between the teams, won by the Clippers on Jan. 14, had been.

"I expect exactly that," Billups had said.

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