Lakers’ Russell Westbrook explains altercation, his ejection with Darius Bazley vs. Thunder

The game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder grew heated for a brief moment in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.

After the Lakers had blown its 26-point lead and the Thunder essentially sealed a win, forward Darius Bazley threw down a dunk instead of dribbling out the 1.5 seconds remaining on the clock.

Russell Westbrook ran down Bazley and clearly didn’t like the move, which led to his ejection. After the game, Westbrook explained the altercation.

“How I play the game, I’m more old-school,” Westbrook said. “And when s— like that happens, I don’t let it slide…In the game of basketball, there’s certain things you just don’t do. Like in baseball, you don’t flip the bat. There’s certain things you don’t do in sports when the game’s already over, and I didn’t like it, simple as that.”

This falls into the “unwritten rules” section of sports, but one could say the Lakers, the oldest team in the league, shouldn’t have let the youngest team in the NBA come back down 26 points for its first win of the season.

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Lakers player grades from 26-point collapse vs. Thunder