The Los Angeles Lakers took on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. Unfortunately, they were no match for the young Thunder team and suffered a 136-120 defeat. During the second quarter, however, a Lakers super fan, former NFL star Shannon Sharpe, had one wish for the superstar, LeBron James. Sharped posted on X (formerly Twitter) during the middle of the game and begged James to avoid turning the ball over.
James finished the game with 28 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 35 minutes. The 6-foot-9 superstar had a great shooting performance from beyond the arc, 50 percent. However, that wasn’t enough to lead the team to victory. His co-star, Luka Doncic, had 23 points and five assists on 42.9 percent shooting from deep.
The Lakers’ third option, Austin Reaves, had 24 points, five rebounds and five assists. Reaves was also efficient from the field and shot 6-for-12 from the field and 4-for-7 from downtown.
But Sharpe wants the club to do better in the second quarter. Since James had already made four mistakes at the time of his posting, he yelled at him to stop making any more.
“Bron, PLEASE STOP TURNING 🏀 over. PLEASE,” Sharpe posted.
Bron, PLEASE STOP TURNING 🏀 over. PLEASE
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) April 9, 2025
He finished the game with six turnovers, which was the most for the team. Overall, the Lakers had 18 turnovers and the Thunder committed six. The constant mistakes the team made caused them to trail for most of the game.
The Los Angeles Lakers only had a few moments in the game where they had control. But that wasn’t enough for them to beat the top team in the Western Conference.
Doncic’s ejection caused the Los Angeles Lakers to lose the game
The Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to beat the Thunder on Tuesday. However, Doncic being ejected from the game during a crucial moment caused them to be at a disadvantage. With less than eight minutes in the fourth quarter, the Slovenian star made a shot over OKC’s Isaiah Hartenstein. After making the shot, he had an interaction with one of the fans sitting courtside.
After his interaction with the fan, he was issued a technical foul, his second. That meant an automatic ejection for Doncic. Watch the sequence in the video below.
Luka Doncic has been ejected from Lakers-Thunder after picking up his 2nd technical foul 👀
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 9, 2025
After the game, James questioned why the referee took Doncic’s reaction too personally.
“It was a weird couple minutes after that — starting with the ejection,” James said. “I don’t know why the ref was taking it personal. He had already gave Luka one and Luka knew that. Luka was going back and forth at that time with a fan sitting courtside, like Luka does, jump in and talk s**t… Just weird as hell after that moment.”
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Follow me on X at @BarbecueBro, and follow us at @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Reign Amurao via email at reignamuraonba@gmail.com. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
