The Los Angeles Lakers earned yet another road victory and their fifth straight overall on Wednesday night as they began a five-game road trip with 96-87 victory over the Orlando Magic.
The Lakers led by 24 early on in the game and even held the Magic to just nine points in the first half, but the Magic clawed back the subsequent quarters to make the game a lot more interesting. They got the lead down to as few as two points before the Lakers started to regain control. But in the fourth quarter, the Magic got a little rowdy with Dwight Howard after Howard drew a loose ball foul after getting two offensive rebounds in the same position.
Orlando’s Wes Iwundu had a shove on Howard after the play, which triggered Dudley to step into the fray and shove Iwundu. The altercation would result in a double ejection for Dudley and Iwundu.
Lakers and Magic exchanging words 👀
Dudley wanted all the smoke 😂 pic.twitter.com/1wHRN2oZJO
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 12, 2019
However, after the game, LeBron loved what he saw from Dudley as the veteran forward backed up his words from Lakers media day that he would defend his teammates if opponents messed with them, according to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times.
Here’s what LeBron said after the game.
That’s all it take to get ejected these day? Just a little shove? I’ve seen a lot more than that. Duds would do whatever like he said. He told you guys at media day that if someone were come in to do something crazy to to me or AD or whoever on the team, he’s going to be the muscle. Y’all forgot about that right?
…
They tried to gang up on Dwight right there so we got to try to even the numbers up a little bit, no jump sessions.
After the game, Dudley compared defending his teammates to defending his own child, according to The Athletic’s Bill Oram.
Jared Dudley on taking on the Magic tonight: "I don’t care if my teammate’s in the wrong or not. It’s like if you have a son, if you have kids at home, and they’re in trouble, you’ll stand up for your son regardless of if it’s a teacher going at him, it’s my son."
— Bill Oram (@billoram) December 12, 2019
With the win, the Lakers won their 12th straight road game and managed to remain undefeated away from Los Angeles so far this season. But they will continue to face challenges throughout the rest of their current road trip, starting Friday night against the 18-6 Miami Heat.