Lakers small forward Metta World Peace didn’t live up to his new name and could be missing some time after elbowing James Harden in the head late in the second quarter while celebrating a fast-break dunk. World Peace claimed the elbow was inadvertent, but replays indicated otherwise. World Peace received a flagrant-2 foul and was ejected. Harden, who leads NBA reserves in scoring at 16.9 points, went to the locker room and didn’t return.

“I got real emotional and excited, and it was unfortunate that James had to get hit with the unintentional elbow,” said World Peace, who had scored 12 points and played solid defense on Durant. “I hope he’s OK. Oklahoma, they’re playing for a championship this year. I apologize to the Thunder and James Harden. It was just unfortunate.”

They both missed a beauty of a game that could echo into the postseason for two division leaders.