Jamal Murray Explains Decision To Taunt Lonzo Ball With Dribble

Matthew Moreno
3 Min Read
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

After months of buildup, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball immediately had his first ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment. A summer trade that sent Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets meant Ball drew hard-nosed point guard Patrick Beverley, now a member of the L.A. Clippers, on opening night.

Beverley took it upon himself to guard Ball the length of the court and get physical with him. Ball made just one basket — a 3-pointer — grabbed nine rebounds and dished out nine assists over 29 minutes in the Lakers’ blowout loss.

Beverley said after the game his goal was to send a message, and he surmised others would do the same, in large part because of LaVar Ball’s relentless public comments. Lonzo has largely avoided such a target, but that changed in Saturday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Second-year guard Jamal Murray seemingly had it out for his counterpart from the outset of the game. Murray torched the Lakers for a game-high 28 points, complete with multiple exchanges with Ball.

He capped off the Nuggets’ 115-100 win with a pair of free throws that came after Julius Randle purposely followed Murray, in response to him taunting Ball by dribbling around his as the clock wound down.

Murry expressed some regret over his actions, via Harrison Wind of BSNDenver.com:

“I may have taken it too far. It was a bad play by me,” Murray said from his locker after the win. “The energy was so great and we had such a great game. Like I said, I may have taken it too far but the energy was great and I felt like we could do anything we wanted.”

“We gotta have some rivalries,” Murray said.

In response to scrutiny, Murray also downplayed the incident on Twitter.

Ball, who is dealing with tightness in both calves, nor the Lakers publicly addressed Murray’s act. Murray was selected seventh overall by the Nuggets in the 2016 Draft.

He scored just 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting in the first matchup with the Lakers this season, a game that saw Ball record his second career triple-double. The Lakers and Nuggets don’t meet again until March 9.

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Matthew Moreno is a journalist from Whittier, Calif., who is a credentialed reporter and is currently the Managing Editor of DodgerBlue.com and LakersNation.com. In addition to covering Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angels Lakers games, Matthew has a strong passion for keeping up to date with the sneakerhead culture. It began with Michael Jordan and Air Jordan shoes, and has carried over to Kobe Bryant's signature line with Nike. Matthew previously was the lead editor and digital strategist at Dodgers Nation, and the co-editor and lead writer at Reign of Troy, where he covered USC Trojans Football. Matthew graduated from California State Long Beach University with a major in journalism and minor in communications. Contact: matt@mediumlargela.com
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