Lakers teammate spoke to Lonzo Ball about him avoiding beef

Lakers center Brook Lopez had no problem getting involved in the shoving match between teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and fellow guard Tyler Ulis of the Phoenix Suns during the fourth quarter of Friday night’s 122-113 Suns victory at Staples Center.

“I just tried to get in there and break it up,” Lopez said. “I was just trying to get in the middle of it. If someone throws a punch, maybe it’ll hit me. I can take it.”
Lopez was laughing. But the tone of an interview with Lopez following practice Saturday changed a bit when the subject of what teammate Lonzo Ball did was broached. It was the opposite of Lopez. The skirmish began at the outset of a timeout just as Ball was passing the two combatants. Ball looked over, but just continued to walk on by, rather than get in there. Smart?

“Yeah, I mean, you’re staying out of trouble,” Lopez said. “I feel like I’m big enough to where I can come and get in the middle of it, and I’m not going to do anything crazy. So I’m just trying to get everything under control, help get everything under control.”

Lopez was asked if he had any reaction to Ball’s non-reaction.

“To Zo? No, no, I thought it was just smart staying away from it,” Lopez said.

Ball gave his thoughts postgame.

“It’s the NBA,” he said. “People ain’t really gonna fight, so I ain’t trying to get no tech.”

Coach Luke Walton on Saturday acknowledged that a player on the team talked to Ball about it, when team camaraderie for a situation like this was mentioned. However, Walton was firm in his defense of Ball, his 20-year-old rookie point guard.

Yes, Walton said, it “absolutely” was smart that Ball steered clear of the fracas. No, he’s not concerned about how it appears to others.

“I don’t really care how that looks,” Walton said, “because our guys love Zo. He’s one of the few rookies I’ve ever seen that everybody is just kind of drawn toward him. Vets, everyone really wants him to succeed. They all love playing with his group, whether it’s practice or the game.

“So I think they all know that what that looked like isn’t what Zo is about and isn’t symbolizing what his feelings are on that type of situation. I know the general public and the internet world likes to do what they do, but it didn’t really affect our team at all because they know who Zo is and they know what he’s about.”

Walton would not identify the player who spoke to Ball, but he said he likes the way it was handled.

“I want everything to come from the players,” Walton said. “We’re going to coach our lessons and coach our philosophy on how we want to play and how we want to do things as a group.

“Whether somebody’s taking too many shots or somebody’s not playing hard on defense, I want players to hold each other accountable and feel comfortable enough within our environment to be able to call each other out on anything like that, so it’s nice when that happens.

Lopez gets 1,000th block

Lopez, in his 10th season – first with the Lakers – on Friday blocked four shots. His final swat was the 1,000th of his career. He said he didn’t even realize that.
“No, I didn’t,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”

He said he learned to do this early in life.

“I’ve always prided myself on being a shot-blocker,” he said. “It’s something my twin brother (Robin) and I have always taken to heart and looked to do on the court since we were very little. And so that’s very, very cool and it’s humbling for me.”

This and that

The Lakers (6-10) on Sunday play host to the Denver Nuggets (9-6) at 6:30 p.m. at Staples Center. … The Lakers were 5-5 before losing three of four on their recent road trip ahead of going 0-2 at home since returning. “I felt like we were really starting to play some consistent, solid basketball,” Walton said. “We lost it somewhere along that road trip, and we’ve just gotta get it back.”

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