D’Angelo Russell. That was the name heard loud and clear tonight. In their game tonight, the Los Angeles Lakers are behind the Atlanta Hawks 73-56 in the third quarter (Atlanta has started the session on a 6-0 run). LA is having a lot of problems.
They’re playing in one of the more hostile venues we’ve seen all year, despite their generally subpar performance (particularly defensively), as shown by this:
Hawks fans chanting “We don’t want you!” with D’Angelo Russell at the FT line pic.twitter.com/fdH7yysOP7
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 31, 2024
Hawks fans chanted “we don’t want you” at D’Angelo Russell during his time at the free throw line. This was in reference to reports that he would be traded for Dejounte Murray. Among the chants heard, this one seems the most intriguing.
Regretfully, though, he hasn’t handled the taunting well; as of right now, he’s only 1-of-7 for four points on the day, which is his lowest performance of January.
Ironically, this makes things more likely since, following such a lackluster showing when asked to contribute more (now that Anthony Davis is out), LA may start to reexamine their previous perception of Russell, which wasn’t fantastic and initially resulted in him being linked to rumors.