The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a brutal defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns in a game that was much more lopsided than the 115-105 final score suggests. But the headlines were more about the extra-curricular events from the game than its actual result.

There was Rajon Rondo getting a Lakers fan ejected. Devin Booker mocking Russell Westbrook with his rock-the-baby celebration. And even LeBron James himself seen virtually giving up on a play and not running down the court after getting a stop.

But the most prominent was the Lakers sideline blow-up between Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis. Both parties have spoken up about the issue, claiming the beef was squashed immediately after it sizzled on the court.

LeBron James was asked about how the Lakers have been dealing with the emotional side of things, amid the apparent internal strife that they're continuing to face both on the court and the sidelines.

Via Spectrum SportsNet:

“I don't think it's a lot of frustration,” claimed the Lakers star. “I really don't. I think there's moments when you're frustrated because you wanna be better. You want better communication .. But I think it gets overly blown when you lose a game and you have some techs here, and you see an altercation. And you start to saying well with these guys, ultimately, the whole thing is frustration.

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For LeBron, one can see the intensity being displayed as a good thing. The Lakers aren't sitting around content with the putrid product they've been putting out thus far, which is indeed cause for conflict to get things resolved or make changes.

“We're competitors. If you don't get mad at certain things on the floor that you feel I should've done better, then what are you here for? We like that as a ball club. We like the adversity. I like the adversity and I like it even more when two men in a team can come together and talk about it and move on. That's what real men do. You don't let it linger. You say what you gotta say. You talk about it and move on. That's what we did tonight.”

The Lakers currently sit at 0-2. How well they bounce back from their first two performances will go a long way in reducing the number of petty squabbles they've been having internally.