LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings couldn't wait for the regular season to express their dislike for each other.

The Lakers' Rick Fox and the Kings' Doug Christie fought each other in the tunnel near the court after they were ejected from Friday night's preseason game. Neither player appeared to be seriously hurt.

The scuffle began with a little more than two minutes gone in the final exhibition for both teams. Christie drew an offensive foul when Fox turned and knocked him down with an elbow. After Christie got up from the floor, the players exchanged words. Fox pushed Christie in the face with an open hand, and Christie responded with a left-handed punch 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. Fox grabbed Christie in a headlock, and they had to be separated by security, as well as the entire Kings bench.

The episode detracted from what ordinarily is a go-through-the-motions finale to the preseason.

"I thought it was going to be fun," Kings center Vlade Divac told ESPN. "The last game of the preseason, you try to work on your game and get ready for the regular season."

The teams have become rivals only in the past few years, as the Lakers started winning titles and the Kings started challenging them behind Chris Webber. Last season they battled to a seventh game in the Western Conference finals last season before the Lakers prevailed and went on to beat New Jersey for their third straight title.

They don't play each other in the regular season until Christmas Day, and Friday night was their first meeting of the preseason. The game was played as a doubleheader at Staples Center. Cleveland and Milwaukee played the early game.

The teams regularly trade insults, but the rhetoric heated up before Friday night's game as Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal said, "I'm not worried about the Sacramento Queens."