The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Houston Rockets 117-100 on Tuesday night.
Lost in the aftermath of James Harden publicly quitting on his team following the outing was the fact that certain members of the Rockets seemed to take serious offense to something LeBron James did.
With nearly eight minutes remaining in the second quarter, James found himself unguarded in the corner with the ball in his hands. As a defender ran towards him, he pump faked and then launched a beautiful three.
James was so confident that the ball was going in that he turned his back to the basket before it even got there. Surely enough, he hit the shot and the Lakers bench exploded.
Sheesh. pic.twitter.com/PidwFwMKDz
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 13, 2021
One person who wasn’t a fan of James’ little shtick? Rockets head coach, Stephen Silas.
“It doesn’t feel good,” he said during a Zoom call with the media after the game. “Sure doesn’t. They’re obviously a together group, and they’re having fun at our expense. So, it doesn’t feel good at all, and we should take umbrage. It’s like they’re dancing on our home court. We’ve just got to fight. We’ve got to fight through it.”
The play encapsulated the season as a whole for both the Lakers and Rockets.
In the case of LA, it was just the latest example of how good James still is. He finished Tuesday night having gone 4-of-9 from beyond the arc, scoring 26 points in the process.
Nobody was happier about Alabama’s championship win. https://t.co/ix1ajw8ZbX
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 12, 2021
For Houston, it was just the latest in a long line of embarrassments. The team fell to 3-6 on the year and now sits dead last in the Southwest Division. After the fact, Harden once again reiterated how badly he wanted to be traded.
For better or worse, these are two teams heading in completely different directions. Based on how this game went, it’s safe to say that won’t be changing any time soon.
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