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LeBron James lost his cool on a few different occasions in a recent outing against Russell Westbrook and the Clippers. The cross-town rivals faced off Wednesday night, which resulted in a 125-118 win for the Clippers.
Westbrook apparently viewed this as a revenge game after being dealt by the Lakers earlier this season. He did his best to pester his former teammates on the court.
The Lakers entered the matchup with the same gameplan for Russ as many others. Make him beat you by knocking down jump shots. Anthony Davis said as much after the game, commenting, “Our gameplan was to make him shoot the ball. He made them.”
That strategy didn’t work as Westbrook knocked down six of his 12 shots, including a 50% clip from three-point land, on his way to 14 points in 21 minutes of action.
Russ let the Lakers hear it after knocking down a few of those outside shots as he tried to make them regret their decision to trade him to the Clippers. Westbrook singled out LeBron on a couple of those occasions, figuring LeGM might’ve had a bit to do with that deal.
Russell Westbrook drills the jumper and points at LeBron James pic.twitter.com/HkROOCCd0b
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) April 6, 2023
It wasn’t the only interaction between the two former teammates. Later in the action, LeBron sailed a pass out of bounds and into Westbrook’s hands. Russ let him hear it on that play, too, complimenting James for the turnover.
LeBron James passes to Russell Westbrook on the Clippers bench.
Russ pointed to him and said ‘good pass!’ 😂
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) April 6, 2023
The trolling appeared to get to LeBron, who was seen in verbal altercations with both an LA fan and the Clippers bench at different times in the game.
Fans grew frustrated with the Lakers’ play as the team fell behind by 19 points by the halftime break. At one point, he was shouting at someone wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey in the stands.
LeBron James appeared to get into a heated exchange with a fan late in the Lakers loss to the Clippers 😬
(via freethrowchick) pic.twitter.com/I4rISvsfv8
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 6, 2023
The frustrations then turned back to Russ, as James was trolled online for staring down the Clippers bench on an And-1 play late in the fourth quarter with his team down 16 points.
LeBron James appears to have some words with Russell Westbrook after the and-1 pic.twitter.com/RUZOcnLH3S
— Oh no he didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) April 6, 2023
James didn’t stick around long after the game ended.
LeBron James leaves the court early as the Clippers win the Battle of LA 👀
The Clippers have now won 11 straight games against the Lakers 🤯pic.twitter.com/eQn73ruSpl
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 6, 2023
Tough look for the Lakers. They’ll hope to get things turned around for the playoffs.