A slight bump from D’Angelo Russell in Tuesday night’s Blazers-Lakers tilt enraged Damian Lillard, and motivated the star guard in an otherwise miserable performance.
Might not wanna give Dame a reason to go off… https://t.co/yPSpH7jt10
— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) January 11, 2017
Lillard helpled lead Portland to a 108-87 win at Staples Center, and says that Russell unwisely “poked the bear.”
Damian Lillard speaks re: scuffle with D'Angelo Russell:
"Im from Oakland … he poked the bear, you saw what happened rest of the game" pic.twitter.com/73lYZY3mXp
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) January 11, 2017
The All-Star guard finished with 20 points on 21 shots (Russell contributed 9 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists for Los Angeles.)
Per the OC Register:
“After he blocked my shot,” Lillard said, “I was walking to my spot and I felt like he went out of his way to get that elbow in there. I told him that ain’t gonna fly. And I wasn’t interested in anything else that was said after that.”
Then, Lillard suggested the two could settle their score elsewhere. […] “We ain’t going to do it on the court,” he said, “so we’ll be in the back and whatever happens happens.”
“He poked the bear,” Lillard said, “and you (saw) what happened the rest of the game.”