Game 3 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns got very chippy down the stretch as the home team had things in control and it was capped off by a dangerous play late in the fourth quarter.
As Dennis Schroder rose for a layup, Suns star Devin Booker shoved him out of the air. The play was ruled a Flagrant 2 and Booker was ejected.
The shove itself wasn’t too hard, but the fact that Schroder was in the air when it occurred makes it extremely scary as a player has little control over his body at that time. Thankfully, Schroder was fine and laughed the play off, even doing some push-ups as he got up from the court. But that didn’t diminish the Lakers’ thoughts on Booker’s actions.
The series has been a physical one with plenty of words exchanged between the two sides and superstar Anthony Davis has no issues with that. But there is a line that can’t be crossed in his eyes.
“It was a physical game, all game. Guys chirping,” Davis said after the contest. “Me, Jae [Crowder], LeBron [James]. Dennis [Schroder], Book. [Deandre] Ayton had some words, but that’s playoff basketball. Guys gonna chirp, guys gonna talk.
“We can’t allow plays like that to happen just to push a guy out the air with two hands whether it was out of frustration or not. It’s a scary play and luckily Dennis is alright, but sometimes it can end badly for a player, so we don’t want to let the chirping lead to something like that. That’s all I got to say on that.”
LeBron James echoed the thoughts of his teammate. “I thought the play wasn’t a basketball play. Many times someone gets airborne, shoving them out of the air can be very dangerous. So that’s that.”
Booker being frustrated was understandable as he had a rough shooting night in a game the Lakers were pulling away with, but as Davis noted, those kinds of plays simply can’t happen. There was no play on the ball by Booker, just a shove.
There has been some serious tension between these teams in every game so far with players needing to be separated and now ejections in two of the three games. With things continuing to heat up, Game 4 between these two will be must-watch television.
Schroder: ‘Nobody is going to disrespect me’
That foul from Booker was a huge talking point after the game as it showed the growing animosity between the two teams. All season, Schroder has shown his ability to get under the skin of opponents and on this occasion it went over the line. Schroder embraces the trash talk, but he made it clear that he won’t be disrespected.
“At the end of the day, my mom raised me right,” Schroder said. “End of the day, when somebody talks to me first, I’m going to talk back and it don’t matter who it is. If somebody talks to me disrespectfully, I’m going to do the same thing. So end of the day, we gonna battle there. Nobody is going to disrespect me.
“End of the day, I just talk back and somebody took it too sensitive and he fouled me. But end of the day, if somebody talks, I love trash talking. If somebody talks to me, I’m going to talk back and we’re just going to compete on the highest level. We can do that. I’m always for that.”
Schroder’s competitiveness is one of his best qualities and he has no problems engaging in simple trash talk, but things can’t go overboard and the point guard won’t stand for that.
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