Lakers v. Rockets dispute starts NBA season with suspensions
Whitley Bras, Staff Writer
Photo Courtesy: Unsplash.com- Ramiro Pianorosa
The NBA just began their regular season play in Oct. for the 2018-2019 season. There is a total of thirty teams in the league and two rivaled teams played each other on Saturday Oct. 20, 2018. The Los Angeles Lakersand the Houston Rockets are both extremely strong teams with talented players. The L.A. Lakers are known for having Lebron James, who just joined the team this year as well as Rajon Rondo, Brandon Ingram and Lance Stephenson. The Houston Rockets have strong individual players such as James Harden, Chris Paul and Clint Capela. For regular season play the Lakers have a record of 2-4 and the Rockets are 1-4, and when these teams competed against one another the Rockets came out with a 124-115 victory over the Lakers.
This game was filled with a lot of action and when the end of the fourth quarter came around an on-court altercation occurred that left three players with suspensions from the NBA. The incident started when Brandon Ingram, with the Lakers fouled James Harden, a player for the Rockets late in the fourth quarter. Ingram disagreed with a call the referee made and pushed Harden in the back which caused a technical. Lance Stephenson who plays with the Lakers then jumped in to pull Ingram away from the fight, and that’s when Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul began disputing. After the NBA reviewed the tape it showed that Rondo spit on Paul and that is when they both began to throw punches at one another and then Ingram joined in.
The NBA announced that all three players were going to be punished for their actions. Brandon Ingram number 14 for the Lakers received suspension for four games. The NBA states, “Ingram has been suspended for aggressively returning to and escalating the altercation and throwing a punch in the direction of Paul, confronting a game official in a hostile manner, and instigating the overall incident by shoving Rockets guard James Harden”. Rajon Rondo, number 9, a guard for the L.A. Lakers received suspension for three games. The NBA released a statement explaining, “Rondo has been suspended for instigating a physical altercation with and spitting and throwing multiple punched at Chris Paul”. Lastly, Chris Paul, number three and guard for the Houston Rockets received a two-game suspension. The NBA’s statement referred to him by stating, “Paul has been suspended for poking at and making contact with the face of Rajon Rondo and throwing multiple punches”.
The NBA was able to review over the tapes from the game and assess any further action that they thought was required and then released the statement about their reasoning for the suspensions to the public.
The suspensions will not have a huge impact to the teams’ overall seasons because there are so many games in the season, which runs until April. The players will be back on the court within a short amount of time. Until then the Lakers will be down two key players but with Lebron James guiding the team the Lakers will be able to stay strong in the absence of some of their players. Chris Paul who is a guard for the Houston Rockets will also leave a gap in the lineup but with only having to sit out for two games will be able to come back without too much of a loss.
The NBA 2018-2019 season has started off with a loud bang and will definitively get fans and viewers excited to get in on the action. These were the first suspensions of the season and involved a dramatic dispute between two of the NBAs popular teams.
Sources: NBA, Yahoo Sports Article, USA Today Article, L.A. Lakers, Houston Rockets
