NBA

NBA Fines Lakers Nick Young, D'Angelo Russell For Scuffle

Both Nick Young and D'Angelo Russell were ejected for an on-court scuffle on Friday night at Staples Center

On Sunday, the NBA announced that Nick Young and D'Angelo Russell had both been fined for their parts in an scuffle that broke out of Friday night when the LA Lakers played the Milwaukee Bucks at Staples Center.

Young, who took exception to a hard foul by shoving Malcolm Brogdon, will now pay a $25,000 fine, while Russell will pay a $15,000 fine for "entering the altercation and pushing (Greg) Monroe."

Monroe came to Brogdon's defense and seemed to shove Young in the neck area and also got a bit of a slap in on Lakers rookie Brandon Ingram. The Bucks' big man will pay the league office $35,000, so financially speaking, he is the player hit with the harshest penalty in an incident where no one threw a punch and neither team had players leave their bench areas.

In the aftermath of the game, Lakers coach Luke Walton was left fuming at one of the Bucks' team employees pushing Ingram, and the Lakers' coach even seemed to go as far as to suggest that LA could add a bit of muscle on their bench for future incidents if the NBA didn't have a problem with the Bucks' employee placing his hands on the Lakers' rookie.

While a fine would have been expected for the Lakers' coach, the NBA doesn't seem interested in leveling a fine on the coach, suggesting that his post-game rant was not out of bounds.

Also, the NBA did not offer any language on the team employee who got involved, so the league is sending a slightly mixed message by not fining the coach for speaking out, while also not punishing the team for sending out a security guard during an on-court scuffle.

What does this mean? Well, maybe the Lakers will be hiring a bit of extra help on their bench, after all.

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