The LA Lakers’ rocky start to the NBA season has continued with Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard involved in a heated scuffle on the bench that almost spilled into the crowd.
Davis and Howard’s clash took place in the second quarter of the Lakers’ clash against the Phoenix Suns with frustrations boiling over as the Suns built a 13-point half-time lead at the Staples Center before holding on in the second half for a 115-105 win.
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Following the game, Davis told reporters that the argument began over a defensive miscommunication prior to the timeout, before he and Howard exchanged words on the bench while Howard was seated.
Howard then stood up and confronted Davis, who appeared to grab his teammate’s jersey pushing him away before Lakers players and coaches intervened between the pair.
The Lakers fell down by as much as 32 points in the dismal outing, with Howard not playing a single minute in the second half after the clash with his teammate.
The incident caught the attention of Lakers legend Magic Johnson, who said the Lakers have a “team issue and basketball issue” in the wake of Howard and Davis’ altercation.
https://twitter.com/MagicJohnson/status/1451770678642819075
“In my 42 years of being associated with the Lakers organisation, I’ve never seen something like that,” he tweeted.
Despite the ugly optics of the incident, Howard said Davis and he had resolved their differences shortly after the clash.
“We squashed it right then and there,” he told reporters after the game. “We just had a disagreement about something that was on the floor.”
“We’re both very passionate about winning and we didn’t want to lose this game, but we got it out the way.
“We’re grown men and things happen, but there’s no issue between me and him. That’s my brother, that’s my teammate.
“That’s what I told him. I said, ‘I’ll always be here for you no matter what. I’ll always fight for you and do whatever I can to help this team win’, and he said the same thing so we’re good.
“We squashed it, there’s no need to try and make it bigger and into something else.”
Davis and Howard were teammates on the Lakers’ championship-winning team in 2020, before Howard played last season in Philadelphia.
The 35-year-old big man signed a one-year veteran minimum deal to return to the Lakers for this season to play primarily as Davis’ backup.
The 0-2 Lakers will hope to reverse their winless start to the season when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon AEDT.