Game 4 of the first round series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets saw some tensions boil over down the stretch. A minor late-game altercation with about a minute remaining led to Lakers rookie Adou Thiero and Rockets guard Aaron Holiday both getting ejected.
The altercation between the two seemed pretty minor and came nowhere near escalating, so the decision by the referees to eject both seemed a bit premature. But the Lakers have Thiero’s back with superstar Luka Doncic pledging to pay any fine the rookie may get due to being tossed, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
In the locker room after the game, Lakers star Luka Doncic told Thiero he would pay whatever fine the NBA imposes for the infraction.
As is the case in many playoff series, things can get a bit chippy the longer things go as players get frustrated facing off with the same guys night after night. With Deandre Ayton being ejected in the third quarter after being assessed a Flagrant 2 foul because of an errant elbow to Alperen Sengun, the officials wanted to make sure things didn’t get out of hand and order was maintained.
Even still, an ejection for two players just battling back and forth for a rebound seems a bit excessive and it is often forgotten about that players automatically get fined when this happens. And for a rookie second-round pick like Thiero, that money goes a long way as he doesn’t have the huge contract yet, hence why Doncic is willing to pay that fine for him.
This also shows the camaraderie within this Lakers locker room as Doncic showed no hesitation in his willingness to take care of this for his teammate. From the biggest superstar down to the rookies, this team is a close group and everyone feels that what happened to Thiero wasn’t right and now, at least the young guard won’t have to worry about taking care of that fine.
Luka Doncic continuing to progress from Grade 2 hamstring strain
Of course, Doncic and the Lakers are hoping he will be able to return to the court soon as he continues to recover from the Grade 2 left hamstring strain he suffered earlier this month. And thankfully things are still progressing as he puts in all the necessary work.
Lakers coach JJ Redick noted that Doncic is increasing his on-court work and was even able to do some movement stuff, but there still remains no concrete timeline for his potential return.
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