It's no harm, no foul for Paul, Rondo

The NBA will not take disciplinary action against New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul or Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo for their verbal confrontation after Sunday's game at the TD Garden, league spokesman Tim Frank confirmed Thursday.

After the game, Paul sought out Celtics forward Paul Pierce to shake his hand and offer congratulations for his performance. However, before Paul could finish, Rondo came up and bumped him, and that led to the two exchanging words.

They had to be separated, and as Rondo was ushered from the court area by a team official, Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau and Paul got into a shouting match in front of the Celtics' bench.

Since Monday, the league had taken steps to review the incident. But Paul declined comment Thursday about the league's decision. When Hornets Coach Byron Scott was asked about the developing rivalry between the two point guards, he said it's more of jealousy involving Rondo.

"Rondo is probably jealous of what Chris has," Scott said. "He's an All-Star and gets a lot of notoriety for who he is and how he plays. The statement that (Rondo) made about the reason Chris has the (statistical) numbers he does is because he has the ball in his hands, I think Chris is a point guard, and they're supposed to have the ball in their hands. That's just like me saying the reason (Rondo) got a championship (2008) is because he's playing with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen."

Scott said he overheard Paul say that Rondo is going to respect him as a man. On Monday, Paul posted on his Twitter account that he never came close to approaching the Celtics' locker room as some media reports indicated. Paul also wrote he never got into a shouting match with Thibodeau.

Things began to get intense in the second quarter when Paul and Rondo got tangled underneath the basket, and they exchanged words before both were assessed technical fouls.

. . . . . . .

John Reid can be reached at jreid@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3047.