Look, it’s a long NBA season. There are 80 games left for most teams to play. The trend lines now might not be the trend lines a few months from now.
But just about everything we’ve seen from the Los Angeles Lakers so far says that they’ve got some real issues with their chemistry that need solving. Their warts showed everywhere in the loss to the Suns on Friday.
They only lost the game by 10 with a 115-105 score, but that’s only because of the late push they made. They were never quite in this game and trailed by more than 20 points for a chunk of it.
In between all that, there were some moments where their issues really popped out.
The scuffle between Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard
This was maybe the biggest moment in such a weird loss for the Lakers. Davis and Howard got into it on the bench. Over what? We have no idea. But it didn’t look good at all.
Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard have an altercation on the bench. 😳
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 23, 2021
There were plenty of jokes about this, but it did seem like a pretty serious thing. The two both said they squashed it and that it was just competitive juices flowing, but it’s still pretty concerning.
Dwight Howard & Anthony Davis on their bench altercation.
"There's no issue between me and him…I didn't even say nothing negative to him. It may have just look like it but that's my brother. And I'm not going to let nobody mess up our relationship." pic.twitter.com/kLw1whoUH8
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 23, 2021
Hopefully, it’s truly done. But that’s not where their night stop being weird.
LeBron James doesn't play offense
Shortly after Davis and Howard’s scuffle, LeBron James decided to just…take a play off? On offense? This was so weird.
He gets a chase down swat on a Cam Johnson dunk and then just decides that, uh, the play was over right there. The team can just play 4 on 4.
Guess LeBron is done playing offense for the night pic.twitter.com/osV2Aw4CIe
— The Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) October 23, 2021
Honestly, don’t know quite what to make of this. But it was just super weird and awkward and exactly what you don’t want to see if you’re a Lakers’ fan. There wasn’t even an explanation for it.
He just…stopped playing.
Rajon Rondo also got into it with a fan
Not quite sure what happened with this, either. But some sort of problem ensued between Rondo and a fan at the game.
It led to Rondo pointing a finger at that fan and the fan being promptly removed from the game.
Rondo making an interesting hand gesture at that fan.
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 23, 2021
Just an entire mess.
Things will probably be fine but this is really weird
It’s game 2 of 82. There’s no need to overreact to any of this. But you can see the frustration with this team already and that’s never good.
It can be fixed. But the Lakers really need to get on it. And they need to do it soon because falling in an early hole in the Western Conference won’t be an easy one to dig out of.
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