Tempers flared at one point between D’Angelo Russell and Dennis Schroder during the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. Leaked audio has now shown that the former teammates were really going at each other during the contest.

Russell: “Do something… ight”

DLo told Schroder: “That sh*t is weak… Stop doing that weak a** sh*t”

While former teammates clashing like this might be surprising, Schroder and Russell were only together briefly last season with the Lakers. They played 15 regular season games together (going 10-15 in them), and then featured in all 16 playoff games for the Lakers as they made it to the Western Conference Finals.

Both of these two aren’t strangers to trash talk either. Schroder is great at getting under people’s skins while Russell’s heated trash talk with Bruce Brown during the In-Season Tournament final had gone viral previously.

Russell and the Lakers won that day and it was the same here as well, as they beat the Raptors 132-131 in a somewhat controversial fashion. He had 11 points, 1 rebound, and 5 assists on the night while Schroder had 10 points, 2 rebounds, and 6 assists.

D’Angelo Russell Has Had A Difficult Season With The Lakers

Russell came into this 2023-24 season as the starting point guard for the Lakers but lost his starting spot in December following some poor displays. It would have been a bitter pill to swallow, and Russell admitted he is not happy with being benched by Darvin Ham.

He just has to play better if he is to reclaim that spot, as the 27-year-old is averaging 14.7 points, 2.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game this season. He had garnered some praise for his defense earlier in the campaign, but there’s been some slippage on that end of the floor as well.

It seems likely at this point, that Russell will be shipped out of town. The Lakers have stumbled to a disappointing 19-20 record this season, and his name is the one that is being floated around in trade talks.

Dennis Schroder On Turning Down A Four-Year, $84 Million Deal From The Lakers

A common link between Russell and Schroder isn’t just that they were teammates, but also that they had two separate stints with the Lakers during their careers. The lasting memory when it comes to Schroder’s first stint in the 2020-21 campaign, is how he turned down a massive four-year, $84 million extension from the Lakers in order to become a free agent.

It backfired tremendously on him, as the German hasn’t even come close to earning that much since then. For a while, he denied that he ever got such an offer, but Schroder has now revealed that his former representatives made him turn down that $84 million deal from the Lakers.

At the time, Schroder was represented by Alex Saratsis of Octagon, but he has now switched to Mark Bartlestein of Priority Sports. If his former agent did, in fact, tell him to reject that deal in 2021, then you do feel for him.

Schroder did at least get a two-year, $26 million deal from the Raptors this past offseason, which somewhat lessens the blow from back then. You do wonder, though, whether he would have been the starting point guard for the Lakers today had he accepted their deal in 2021.

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