Many Los Angeles Lakers fans will remember a moment in 2014 when an angry Nick Young was fouled against the Phoenix Suns. When Young reacted, it looked like he was trying to take on the entire Suns team by himself as there were no Lakers in sight.
On Friday night Young again found himself as the recipient of a hard foul, this time from the Milwaukee Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon. On this occasion however, Young’s teammates quickly came to his defense. Brandon Ingram, D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr., and Ivica Zubac all got in the fray (some more aggressively than others) just in case things escalated.
After the game, Young praised his young teammates for having his back in that moment, via Lakers Nation’s Ryan Ward:
Nick Young on his Lakers teammate’s support: “I love the way the young guys stepped up for me.”
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) March 18, 2017
Furthermore, Young noted that the moment was a sign of the unity of the entire team via Ward:
Nick Young: “As a team, the whole coaching staff, players, we’ve got each others backs. That’s unity. That’s a team.” #Lakers
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) March 18, 2017
Head coach Luke Walton defended his players following the game and was extremely unhappy with the certain things that happened. Most notably, Walton didn’t like a Milwaukee Bucks security guard pushing Ingram. He also didn’t understand why Russell was ejected from the game.
The Lakers have struggled throughout this season and have now been officially eliminated from the postseason for the fourth consecutive year. Despite the disappointments however, this team remains close and the scuffle against the Bucks was proof of that.
Many teams begin to splinter and have internal issues at times like these, but when push came to shove literally, the Lakers were on the same page.
