Los Angeles Lakers guard Rajon Rondo believes that Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul has the wool pulled over people's eyes in the wake of their melee on Saturday night that resulted in suspensions for both players.

"Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy," Rondo told ESPN. "They don't know he's a horrible teammate. They don't know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in L.A.; trying to get to the Clippers' locker room. They don't want to believe he's capable of taunting and igniting an incident."

Paul was suspended a pair of games, while Rondo received three for an incident where Paul alleges that Rondo spat on him, a claim that Rondo vociferously denies.

"I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I [was] exasperated because I was about to tell him to 'get the [expletive] out of here," Rondo said. "Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and [Car]Melo [Anthony] in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction."

When told that the NBA analyzed video of the incident to mete out discipline, Rondo suggested that somebody had been "tampering with evidence" and accused Paul of making up a story about the alleged spitting.

"Ain't no way that I intentionally spit on you with my body language the way it was," Rondo said.  "One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger-pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I'm going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain't going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them. After the [expletive] goes down, within 30 seconds, you run and tell the sideline reporters that I spit on you? If I spit on you, you are trying to get to me. You not trying to make up a story so you can look like a good guy. It makes no sense to me."

The 32-year-old Louisville native said he only threw a punch after Paul got a finger in his face.

"It's bigger than basketball now, for you [the media], for the league, that side over there trying to spin this like ... this whole spitgate," Rondo said. "Trying to blame me without being accountable for anything he did to provoke the situation."

Rondo said he initially planned to keep quiet about everything, but decided to make an example for his children.

"I was going to let it rest," Rondo said. "I wasn't going to say much. But now I have kids and I teach my kids to speak up for themselves and don't let the world tell their story."

In his 13th season and first with the Lakers, Rondo began his suspension on Monday night, sitting out his team's loss to the San Antonio Spurs. He is eligible to return on Saturday night when the Lakers travel to San Antonio. This is the seventh suspension of Rondo's career.

Rondo's teammate Brandon Ingram, who was suspended for four games, can return next Monday at the Minnesota Timberwolves.