The Lakers might be looking for a little more than revenge after last week’s loss to the Nuggets.
Last Friday, the Lakers fell to the Denver Nuggets 125-116. With about 0:40 seconds left to go in the game, Jamal Murray stole a lazy pass from Lonzo, and that play virtually sealed the victory for the Nuggets. After Murray hit the final free-throw of the game, he pounded his chest a couple of times in the direction of Lonzo, Laker’s Head Coach Luke Walton, and the Laker’s bench as the time expired.
Walton took exception to Murray’s gesture and lost complete control of his emotions right then and there. The Ref even had to lightly hold Walton back:
At a glance, it probably seemed like Walton overreacted, but this Murray-Ball feud stems back to earlier this season, when winning just wasn’t enough for Jamal.
On January 7, the Nuggets were beating the Lakers in Denver with only a few seconds left to go in the game. Now, Jamal Murray could have easily dribbled out the clock as time expired. However, Murray took it upon himself to sprint out pass half court and kind of dribble around Lonzo like a vulture stocks its pray for no reason.
The Lakers didn't take kindly to Jamal Murray dribbling around Lonzo to end the game. pic.twitter.com/bGBPiQy5nq
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 3, 2017
In any basketball gym in America, what Murray did to Lonzo back in January was extra and objectively a blatant violation of the code. Still, Murray believes that the Lakers are just in their feelings. In speaking to Deadspin, Murray stated:
I can’t control what the other team’s gonna feel…I’m just gonna go out there and hoop, and whoever takes it to heart and takes their losses salty, I can’t do anything about that.
Following the incident on Friday, Lonzo took the highroad in his post game interviews, despite Luke Walton getting so charged up during the actual game.
This is as dismissive of someone as I’ve seen Lonzo Ball. He said the Lakers remembered Jamal Murray’s “punk move” when he dribbled around Ball at the end of a 115-100 Nuggets win on Dec. 2. “Like I said, he going to do the circus stuff,” Ball said. “I’m not feeding into it.” pic.twitter.com/xuXtxPzQqk
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) March 10, 2018
And this morning, Lonzo still seemed pretty unbothered by the whole situation.
We’ll see how the Lakers handle the Nuggets in tonight’s rematch.
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