Los angeles lakers They perfectly comply with the cliché that all skinny dogs are fleas and the sports crisis (accumulates 11 consecutive defeats with the three of last season’s playoffs, the six of the preseason and the two with which the new course has started) are now also added the locker room problems and internal tensions that exploded in the middle of the game against the Phoenix Suns in which the Angelenos ended up falling for 105-115.
Dwight Howard y Anthony Davis almost transformed the game into a UFC duel after come to blows during a timeout in the second quarter of the clash against the current NBA runners-up. The two Lakers players – yes, from the same team – began arguing on the bench until start exchanging grabs and shoves in the middle of the game. All his teammates immediately jumped to separate them, but the image had already been captured by the cameras, revealing the internal problems of a team that does not finish carburing on the field.
Shame on a Lakers legend
“We fix it that way at the time. We just had a disagreement about something that happened on the court“he explained Howard, who did not play the entire second half, in the press room after starring in one of the most surreal scenes of this start of the season in an aimless Lakers.
In my 42 years associated with the Lakers I have never seen anything like this
“In my 42 years associated with the Lakers I have never seen anything like this,” said the team legend Magic Johnson on social media. “The Lakers have a basketball problem and a team problem,” he added.
A fan expelled after touching Rondo
It wasn’t the only controversial image of the night at Staples. Rondo region, Lakers base was also the protagonist of another incident that had nothing to do with the game. During the third quarter of the game, the point guard had a discussion with a fan who was sitting in the front row of the Los Angeles enclosure, who was rebuking him for his game. Rondo, who was also pointing to the ground where the fan had spilled part of his drink, He responded by pointing at the viewer and pretending to shoot him. The fan knocked his hand away and he was immediately expelled from the pavilion.
At that time the Suns already had a 30 point lead on the scoreboard and his first victory in the pocket at the expense of a team that still has to change many things to start working and comply with the role of favorite that they gave him in the betting houses and that has not been reflected in the field where, for the moment, each one seems to make war on their own.
A 0-2 at home, something unprecedented in history
Quite the opposite happens in the Phoenix franchise where Chris Paul it remains the undisputed leader. The base, which has been included among the 75 best players in history of the NBA, took advantage of the duel against the Los Angeles team to increase his legend and become the first player to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 assists in his career after finishing with a double-double of 23 + 14.
Numbers that right now seem enough to some Lakers who have already made history … negative in the franchise. It is the the first time the team started the season with two losses in a row in the first two games played at home. In addition, the team is among the 10 worst in the NBA in both attack and percentage of shooting from the field and rebounds. Just one more test that Frank Vogel and his coaching staff have a lot of work ahead of them.
Not even the good game of LeBron James with 25 points and the first glimpses of Russell Westbrook (He was at the gates of his first triple-double in Los Angeles with 15 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists) made up the bad game of some Lakers who reached the last quarter without any chance of winning after accumulating a 41-71 in the previous two quarters.