The marquee matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets was bound to get testy. Despite the absence of stars LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and James Harden, it certainly lived up to the billing.
In the third quarter, the game got pretty chippy after Nets’ superstar Kyrie Irving and Lakers’ point guard Dennis Schroder were ejected for trash talking. This is unfortunate given that Irving and Schroder put on a show in the first half of the game.
Check out the odd sequence here:
https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1381065787713089536?s=20
Kyrie Irving gets ejected, then jersey launch and a fan catches it pic.twitter.com/FX7Cfbbknt
— The NBA Expert (@RealNBAExpert) April 11, 2021
Irving left the game with 18 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes while Schroder was having himself a night after scoring 19 points in the first half alone. The Lakers ended the half up 61-58 thanks to their defense and some contributions from Andre Drummond, Talen Horton Tucker and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Drummond in particular has a double double of 20 points and 11 rebounds in the middle of the third quarter alone.
If the Lakers end up victorious against the Nets on Saturday, they’ll achieve their fifth win without their superstars. The defending champions might want to win as many games as they can right now given that they’ve fallen to fifth place in the Western Conference standings. However, head coach Frank Vogel has made it clear that the standings are the least of the team’s concerns right now.
The Lakers are focused on getting their superstars back on the court. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Saturday that James could potentially return in three weeks while Davis could be back in 10-14 days. While the Lakers are without their superstars at the moment, the best thing they can do is stay afloat and play inspired basketball without their superstars—something they’ve done so far in Saturday’s game versus the Nets.
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