Carmelo Anthony let some words fly during the blood-smeared scuffle between the Lakers and Pistons on Sunday.
During an exchange with a referee — as coaches and players tried to restrain Isaiah Stewart, who was in a fit of rage after taking an elbow from LeBron James — Anthony stepped in as a peacemaker.
“He [Isaiah Stewart] is not coming this way,” said Anthony, who was captured on video by an onlooker in Detroit.
He appeared to be shielding the Lakers bench from a path for Stewart to be escorted out of the game. That’s when Pistons guard Cory Joseph came over.
“Why are you over here?” Anthony said as Joseph brushed by him. The two appeared to exchange words, but it is unclear what was said.
While he was admittedly “composed” during the brawl, Anthony was protective over his Lakers teammate.
“In the midst of the storm, it was just a matter of keeping everybody composed. We could have easily let the game slip away, but we needed to come together at that moment,” Anthony, in his first year with the Lakers, said postgame. “We needed something like that to spark our fire.”
Anthony — who added 18 points on 5-for-8 from three in the Lakers’ 121-116 win — wasn’t alone in believing the incident united the Lakers.
DeAndre Jordan said “it brought us together.”
Carmelo Anthony during the Pistons-Lakers brawl. Timmy Allos on Instagram“We were down, we could have easily folded, let go of the rope but we didn’t,” Jordan said. “We continued to fight and we knew obviously with LeBron out we had to all step it up even more.”
The on-court brawl occurred in the third quarter after Stewart took an elbow from James on a free throw, and began bleeding from his eye. He then repeatedly charged at James and had to be held back by players and coaches.
Both James and Stewart were ejected from the game. After James’ elbow jerked up and made contact with Stewart’s face, he appeared to look over at the Pistons’ second-year player to make amends.
Lakers star Anthony Davis explained that James had no malicious intent.
“Everyone in the league knows LeBron’s not a dirty guy. A soon as he did it, he looked back at him like, ‘Oh, my bad. I didn’t try to do it,” he said, later adding, “We’re going to protect our brother. … It wasn’t on purpose.”
The NBA has not yet disciplined either team or its players.
The Lakers visit the Knicks on Tuesday.
