John Wall isn't going to take it easy on Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball Wednesday at Staples Center. In fact, he said he would show "no mercy."
“Certain matchups you really get up for. Like when you play [Golden State Warriors guard] Steph [Curry], you definitely want to have a good game,” Wall told the Washington Post Tuesday. “I’m playing against [Ball]. [Gortat] said what he said about me. I didn’t say anything. His dad has been talking. … That makes me want to go out there and lead my team and play the best I can play.”
The reason for Wall's statement on Lonzo came after Ball's father, LaVar, made comments in recent days that the Wizards "better beware."
"Lonzo ain’t losing again!" he said after Sunday's loss to the Pelicans. "Not in the same week!”
Wizards center Marcin Gortat laughed off the statement on Twitter saying "Wall will torture Lonzo for 48 minutes." Wall did not immediately comment, but on the day before the Wizards' matchup with the Lakers, he was more or less saying LaVar is writing checks his son can't cash.
“We didn’t say nothing about him, nothing to him, and he says, ‘The Wizards better be ready because he don’t ever lose two in a row,’” Wall said. “Like, this is the league now. It’s a different ballgame.”
Lonzo has had two good games after a lackluster season-opening performance against the Clippers and Patrick Beverley. Ball fell one assist short of a triple-double in his second-career game against the Suns and then became the youngest player in Lakers history to tally 10 assists in a game against the Pelicans.
But Wall is a four-time All-Star and was seventh in NBA MVP voting last season. He is averaging 24.3 points and 10.0 assists in three games this season.
To steal a quote from Wall himself, the former Kentucky guard is "a different ballgame." The truth of the matter is Lonzo is the one that better beware.
