Game 1 between the Lakers and Suns was a physical contest all night and got testy down the stretch. In the second quarter, Chris Paul left with a shoulder injury but returned shortly after, albeit clearly not his normal self. In the fourth quarter, there was a lot going on after a missed LeBron James free throw, as he and Paul got tangled up, with James falling to the ground and grabbing at his own shoulder.
25 feet away, Cam Payne and Alex Caruso were jawing at each other, with Payne launching the ball at Caruso leading to Montrezl Harrell sprinting in from the other side of the court and trucking Payne.
Cam Payne & Caruso getting into it then Harrell comes in pic.twitter.com/spLJilM9Ft
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) May 23, 2021
You can tell Harrell wasn’t trying to actually fight and ran into Payne accidentally because he immediately tries to hold Payne up, but he got a technical for his actions. Payne got ejected as his actions in firing the ball at Caruso earned him an early exit, per the NBA’s rules. LeBron would shake out his shoulder injury during the kerfuffle and ensuing review and not miss any time, and now the Suns are without their top backup point guard while Chris Paul is still clearly dealing with his shoulder contusion/stinger issue.