Metta World Peace coy about flagrant foul against Denver’s Kenneth Faried

A question about the NBA retroactively penalizing Metta World Peace with a flagrant foul during the second half of the Lakers’ loss Monday to the Denver Nuggets morphed into a 16-minute interview where the eccentric Lakers forward showed off his goofy personality.

He gave varying answers suggesting ignorance about his foul on Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried. World Peace suggested a reporter should perform standup comedy with him. He jokingly accused another reporter of frequently singing Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire.”

Then World Peace claimed he has “a teeth mark on my elbow” after making contact with Faried.

“I don’t want to be in the media complaining for guys coming on my back and smashing me,” World Peace said. “I’m tougher than that.”

World Peace and Howard lead the NBA with five flagrant foul points. Should either of them commit a flagrant foul type 1 in the remaining 24 regular season games, World Peace and Howard will serve a one-game suspension. A flagrant foul type 2 would result in a two-game suspension.

“I can’t take him out before he does it because I don’t know if he’s going to do it,” D’Antoni said of World Peace. “He just has to stay away from that.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@dailynews.com