National Basketball Association

Damian Lillard cites D'Angelo Russell 'poking the bear' after Blazers blow out Lakers

Published Jan. 11, 2017 5:59 a.m. ET

Rob Perez

On Tuesday night, the Portland Trail Blazers blew out the Los Angeles Lakers on their home floor by a score of 108-87. While the final score was certainly lopsided, for two and a half quarters -- the game remained close with several lead changes and ties.

But then D'Angelo Russell and Damian Lillard got into a little scuffle...

https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/819054422189809664

...and Lillard subsequently went off, putting the contest away early in the 4th quarter, and finishing with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Following the game, Lillard spoke about the incident -- saying "I'm from Oakland, I'm not with that extra stuff..." and "He poked the bear, you [saw] what happened..."

https://twitter.com/CSNNW/status/819068922104135680

Lillard's star running mate, CJ McCollum, agreed and described Russell's actions as 'not smart':

https://twitter.com/CSNNW/status/819076857429565440

The Lakers and Blazers play each other again on Jan. 25 at The Moda Center in Portland, which tells me we haven't written the last chapter of this drama.