Teams began to take games in December more seriously than they would have in previous years, which was a huge competitive success of the NBA In-Season Tournament. In the tournament final, the LA Lakers and Indiana Pacers got into a heated exchange early on, with D’Angelo Russell and Bruce Brown shoving each other. In the end, the Purple and Gold prevailed 123-109.
Brown, who is currently with the Pacers following a successful 2022–23 season that included a championship with the Denver Nuggets, was early in foul trouble in the first quarter. Russell permitted him to hear it.
The Lakers guard evidently remembered all the banter Brown had for him in last season’s Western Conference Finals, and now, he had an opportunity to retaliate with some trash talk of his own, which received a viral transcription treatment.
The two men engaged in what the younger generation would refer to as a mid-off, indicating that their trash talk had little effect on either man. However, a winner had to emerge from their battle of the mid, and D’Angelo Russell was the one to take home the title that evening. He not only helped the Lakers win the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament, but he also outperformed Bruce Brown, dishing out 13 points and seven assists to the Pacers guard’s four points on 2 of 9 field goal shooting.
