Ah, that old Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers rivalry. The thing of legends. The games that are so passion-inducing that every single possession is a dogfight. Wait, what?
That umm rivalry reared its head on Friday in a tense January matchup between two sub-500 teams. In the middle of the third quarter, things got a little ugly as Heat point guard Goran Dragic and Lakers shooting guard Jordan Clarkson got into a shoving match.
Things escalated from there with Clarkson putting up his fists before being held. Heat forward James Johnson also got involved as he seemingly charged towards the LAL bench.
Here's the full Jordan Clarkson / Goran Dragic incident, complete with JC squaring up on the Dragon ? pic.twitter.com/kphZrYvZK2
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) January 7, 2017
Of course, Clarkson wasn’t going to back down:
Jordan Clarkson said he thought back to Kobe Bryant's advice on "incidents" with opponents. Never put your hands down, was Kobe's advice.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) January 7, 2017
Fortunately, things were calmed down by the officials, coaches, and various teammates. After a lengthy review, both Jordan Clarkson and Goran Dragic were ejected from the game. Johnson was assessed a technical foul.
It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this after the game. Dragic seemingly did not do much although he initiated the altercation by shoving Clarkson. The Lakers’ guard meanwhile shoved Dragic with his forearm in the neck area and even his decision to put up fists may be enough for the league to suspend him for a game or so.
We will update the situation once more is known.
