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The Los Angeles Lakers‘ Sunday matchup against the Detroit Pistons turned violent after LeBron James hit Isaiah Stewart with an elbow to the face. The blow left Stewart bloody and filled with rage. He did everything he could to get after LeBron and made several efforts to face the superstar. It was one of the biggest dust-ups of the NBA season so far.
Many players were involved in the commotion, whether they were looking to fight or defend their teammates. Carmelo Anthony decided to stay in the background but did chide the Pistons a bit. He kept shouting “he not coming this way” in reference to Stewart possibly making another attempt to get after LeBron. However, one part of the video that’s stuck out to fans is when Pistons guard Cory Joseph came over to the Lakers bench area.
Anthony looked at the guard and simply said, “Why you over here?” with a confused look on his face.
It was a moment of comedy to come out of a very tense situation.
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Why Was Joseph Near the Lakers Bench?
Obviously, during a tense situation between two teams, it’s not a good idea for players to go to the opposing team’s bench area. Joseph could’ve been asking for trouble by stepping into enemy territory. Despite the decision, the guard didn’t receive a technical foul. Referee Scott Foster had a chance to talk about the situation regarding Joseph after the game.
“After Isaiah Stewart left the court, Cory was anticipating he may come around the back of the house and enter the Laker bench from the opposite side,” Foster told James Edward III of The Athletic. “So, he was going to intercept him. I actually told Cory that would be good.”
Joseph was simply there to keep the fight from escalating any further. Fortunately, he never had to hold back Stewart any further.
Anthony Sounds off on Brawl
Prior to the brawl, the Lakers were down by 12 points in the third quarter. With LeBron getting ejected for the elbow to Stewart’s face, it looked like the team was about to suffer another ugly loss. However, the Lakers used the fight to motivate them and ended up storming back for a 121-116 win. Anthony believes that the fight helped ignite the team.
“In the midst of that battle – or whatever you want to call it. In the midst of the storm, it’s just a matter of keeping everybody composed,” Anthony told Mike Trudell after the game. “We could’ve easily let the game slip away. But as a team we needed to come together at that moment.
“It’s unfortunate about what happened, but we needed something like that to spark our fire. We haven’t had anything like that to test us from a physical standpoint. Although like I said, it’s unfortunate what happened but we needed that to spark something – and it did.”
The Lakers have played flat and without much energy in many games this season. The Pistons fight certainly provided a spark. The team can’t get into brawls every game so they need to figure out a more organic way to bring the energy to every game.
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