Wild brawl between Lakers and Rockets leads to three ejections

LOS ANGELES — A wild brawl erupted late in the fourth quarter to mar LeBron James’ home debut with the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

With 4:13 remaining in the game, Lakers guard Rajon Rondo and Houston Rockets All-Star Chris Paul traded blows following an altercation that involved shoving and angry words from several players on both teams.

The extraordinary scenes were sparked when James Harden completed a breakaway lay-up and was fouled in the act by Brandon Ingram. Ingram complained heatedly to the referee and things escalated rapidly.

Paul appeared to poke Rondo in the face, with Rondo responding with a punch as the fray began. Ingram also began to throw punches while James attempted to defuse the situation by ushering Paul out of the way

Paul repeatedly complained that Rondo had spit on him, although initial replays did not appaer to show any such action on the court. 

The game was paused for several minutes while the incident dissipated, before Ingram was ejected for two technical fouls, and Paul and Rondo also were removed.

The madness overshadowed the result of the game, which ended in a 124-115 victory for Houston, with the Lakers unable to regain their composure after the fracas. Los Angeles dropped to 0-2, while James contributed a 24-point haul.

It was a very Los Angeles kind of night. This city thrives on star power like nowhere else. It likes teams that win and are famous while doing so, but can happily settle for solely the latter if need be.

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That’s what it’s going to get this season. The Lakers aren’t elite, nor particularly close to it, certainly not in the greedily-stocked Western Conference. Will they be fun to watch? Absolutely.

The Rockets always had something extra, that little bit of extra poise, the additional gear, much of it coming from the experience of having their core be fully familiar with one another.

But Los Angeles' shortcomings won’t be from a lack of effort and hustle, and there was plenty of both.

James brought the calm, his surrounding parts brought non-stop running and intensity. You can see Luke Walton’s thinking, if his team has to adapt to playing with James, he might as well give the opposition something to adapt to as well. Therefore they run like lightning, wherever and whenever possible, leaving no time for the opposition, or the crowd, to pause for breath.

Just to add to the entertainment there were also the unexpected, and ugly, scenes at the end. You can say what you like about the Lakers, but the start to James’ journey with Los Angeles has been anything but dull.

Sorce usatoday