Emmanuel Mudiay Trades Shots With Byron Scott

Last night’s Nuggets-Lakers game wasn’t really anything worth getting excited about—both teams are bad, you see—except to see what Nuggets rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay was going to do or say about Lakers head coach Byron Scott’s pregame sniping.

Leading up to the game, Scott was asked about the Lakers’ decision to draft D’Angelo Russell instead of Mudiay:

Scott’s assessment may very well be correct, but the smart thing to do in that situation is just to praise your own guy—“we thought D’Angelo was the kind of talent you can’t pass up”—rather than needlessly give an opponent some pregame motivation. Scott’s words were definitely on the Nuggets’ minds heading into the game:

The Nuggets won the game 120-109, and although Mudiay only shot 3-of-13 and had six turnovers, his 10 assists—many of which were quite smooth—had him feeling strong enough to stick Scott’s nose in it:

The Lakers are now 0-4 and ranked 29th in defensive rating, and all Byron Scott’s done is rankle an opposing point guard and call out his own team for being soft. There’s some real great coaching going on in L.A.

Photo via AP