On the heels of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 139-100 loss to the Houston Rockets Wednesday night, there was much to talk about.
There was also a lot of shade that needed to be thrown, apparently.
Let’s start with head coach Luke Walton. He was irate, per the Los Angeles Daily News‘ Mark Medina:
That's the most irritated Luke Walton has shown all season toward end of the game and postgame
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) March 16, 2017
Okay, now let’s allow the sub-talking to begin!
Per the Los Angeles Times‘ Tania Ganguli:
Corey Brewer on the young Lakers learning to handle adversity. "If they don't learn it, they won't be in the league long." pic.twitter.com/S5c0tfOAAx
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) March 16, 2017
Lou Williams, now a member of the Rockets, also joined in on the fun:
Lou Williams with an honest take: "SOME of those young guys are really genuine guys who are going out there & competing as hard as they can"
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) March 16, 2017
The Twitter machine speculated that Brewer and Williams were talking about D’Angelo Russell. Who knows if the social-media prognosticators are right, but Russell’s own comments were less than encouraging:
On his confidence level Russell gave a verbal shrug, then: "Still trying to figure it out. Different role & stuff like that. It’s whatever."
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) March 16, 2017
Lou Williams with an honest take: "SOME of those young guys are really genuine guys who are going out there & competing as hard as they can"
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) March 16, 2017
Drama in Los Angeles (well, technically, Houston). Shocker.
The Lakers have the NBA’s second-worst record. They shut down Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng to play the kiddies. Walton is tinkering with a bunch of different lineup combinations. None of the team’s most important players have more than two or three years of NBA experience. There are going to be nights like this, when the outlook is bleak and the postgame comments sound ominous. It’s a part and parcel of rebuilding.
What matters now is how the Lakers respond. They don’t have to rattle off five straight wins, but they do have to remedy the morale, so that nights like this, when they inevitably happen, don’t devolve into a shade-throwing party.
