There was strange vibe in Staples Center on Wednesday night. The Lakers, six games back of the Clippers for the 8-seed, were hosting the Nuggets and swiftly fell behind by an 18-point margin at the end of the first quarter.
As they found themselves down big after 15 minutes, boo birds arrived. Midway through the second quarter, not much had gotten better for the home team, but LeBron James passed Michael Jordan for fourth on the all-time scoring list in NBA history, providing a brief moment of joy for the Laker faithful.
In the fourth quarter, Los Angeles closed the gap to as few as two points and suddenly it was a game again. However, Denver put the starting unit back in the game and as quickly as the Lakers had gotten back in it, the Nuggets had opened up another double-digit lead to run away with a blowout win. In the closing seconds of the 115-99 loss, the camera panned down towards the half of the court where the Lakers bench is and one couldn’t help but notice something was off.
https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/1103535734919782400
Rondo… 🤔 pic.twitter.com/r9Lvw1vMCo
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) March 7, 2019
Yes, that’s Rajon Rondo sitting in a courtside seat, well away from his teammates and just two seats down from 2 Chainz’s son. The fit of Rondo with the Lakers has not gone well, and LeBron recently made comments that indicated he wasn’t pleased with the way this summer’s veteran signings had played, thus leaving too much responsibility on the young players.
For whatever reason, those comments or something else, Rondo decided he didn’t want to sit with his teammates and would prefer to have some space. Surely, this will be a topic of discussion over the next day or so, and things appear to be getting worse inside the Lakers locker room as the losing continues.
