During Wednesday’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, things grew chippy when Luka Dončić and Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg engaged in some verbal sparring as Dončić gave Lendeborg an early Welcome To The League moment.
Last season, Dončić and then-Brooklyn Nets wing Ziaire Williams got a little heated while Los Angeles hosted the Nets inside Crypto.com Arena. Now a teammate of Dončić’s, Williams is much happier to watch the Slovenian superstar conduct trash talk with
both of them wearing the same colors.
“Oh man, it’s cool. It’s a lot better when you’re on his side than the other side for sure,” Williams told reporters following the 127-105 win over Golden State. “The rookie, he was talking a lot of smack too, so I mean shout out to him for not backing down. Luka definitely had the better day, but I mean, at least he didn’t back away from the challenge so shout out to him. But I mean, Luka, in my opinion, is the best player in the world and it’s going to be like that on a daily basis with him.”
A Lancaster, California native, Williams earned a starting nod in his Lakers debut Wednesday. He tallied nine points on 4-of-7 shooting (1-of-2 beyond the arc), four assists (two turnovers), three rebounds and one steal. Los Angeles outscored the Warriors by 12 points during his 24 minutes.
Dončić has built a pretty lengthy history of trash-talk foes throughout his eight-year career and like Williams before him, Lendeborg is just another on the ledger. Unlike Williams, though, I don’t think he’ll be joining forces with Dončić in the near future. And these teams will face each other three more times during the regular season, so it’ll be interesting to see whether this story adds another chapter or if Wednesday’s theatrics will be its entirety.
Among the comfortable victory, his own performance and getting to witness Dončić dish out smack talk rather than be on the receiving end of it, Wednesday night was a nice one for Williams. He’ll hope to replicate the winning ways and positive outing Friday when the Los Angeles Clippers come to town (from Inglewood).
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
