On the eve of their anticipated showdown on Christmas day (ABC, 8 p.m. ET), the Lakers' Rick Fox launched a verbal assault on the Kings' Doug Christie.

	Christie

	Fox

Fox believes the fight between the two -- in the Oct. 25 exhibition game -- was preconceived on Christie's part to earn back his team's respect, according to a report in Tuesday's L.A. Times.

"It was almost like he was this little proud Cheshire cat, that he'd gotten away with something," Fox said to the newspaper. "I was composed up until the time I turned around. If he had been standing there, concerned too, then I probably would have been OK. The fact that he was so proud of himself, you could just see it was, like, 'Finally, maybe my teammates will respect me now.'"

The trouble started during their first meeting after Christie drew an offensive foul when Fox turned and knocked him down with an elbow. After Christie got up, the players exchanged words. Fox pushed Christie in the face with an open hand and Christie responded with a left-handed uppercut to Fox's jaw.

After they were ejected, the players left the court in opposite directions, but Fox apparently went around the back and met up with Christie in the tunnel that leads to the locker room area.

"When you add up all of it, he came in there and felt like, in the eyes of his teammates, they'd respect him. And I could see it in his face. I literally turned, I didn't even wait for them to say, 'You gotta go.' I just turned," Fox said in the report. "My first thought was, 'He's got to come down that tunnel. I know it. They're going to go tell him and I'm going to be there to talk to him.' "

Fox was suspended six games for his role in the fight, while Christie was only suspended two.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.