The Lakers-Rockets Game Turned Into a Brawl in the Fourth Quarter
The Lakers lost Saturday's game against the Houston Rockets, but that wasn't the only cloud over LeBron James's first home game with his new team. In the fourth quarter, a fight broke out on court between the Rockets' Chris Paul and the Lakers' Rajon Rondo. While it started with just the two of them, other players quickly rushed in.
Paul reportedly claims that Rondo spit on him, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, officials for each team are backing their respective players.
For his part, James denies seeing the fight when it happened, which seems like a diplomatic stretch. Per USA Today:
However, Lakers teammate Lance Stephenson gave a far stronger response, blaming Paul for inciting the skirmish and accusing Houston of deliberately trying to rile the Los Angeles players.
"I thought like (Paul) shouldn’t have put his hand in Rondo’s face," Stephenson said. "You hit someone in the face, you know what’s going to happen after that.
"I felt like the other team was trying to provoke us and we fell for it. I think our guys didn’t get there and push our players away, both Rockets and Lakers. We should have broke our players up, we got to do better at that, grabbing our guys and getting our composure."
Along with Paul and Rondo, Brandon Ingram also faces suspension.
