STEPHEN A. SMITH: LAKERS NEED TO 'GET RID OF' D'ANGELO RUSSELL - HE'S A 'DISGRACE'

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith ripped Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell to shreds on Friday's edition of "First Take."

When discussing the Lakers' loss to the Nuggets, Smith roasted Russell for failing to score a single point in Game 3. 

It's not like Russell was benched. He was on the floor for 24 minutes. To make matters worse, he separated himself from the rest of the team late in the game. 

"D'Angelo Russell, what a disgrace - an embarrassment. Now, I'll be at the game tomorrow night. It's hard to look at this brother. This brother showed up to the game as a starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, probably the most storied franchise in basketball, and did a donut," Smith said. "He scored as many points as us. This is the same dude who averaged 6 points [per game] on 32 percent shooting and 13 percent shooting from 3-point range last year in the Western Conference finals." 

Smith didn't stop there. 

"LeBron James doesn't deserve a teammate like that," Smith continued. "Somebody like that who's not that focused - get rid of him."

We have most likely seen the last of D-Lo in Los Angeles. At this point, playoff team can't rely on him to step up in the big moments. 

The Lakers will face the Nuggets on Saturday night. We'll see if they can avoid getting swept. 

2024-04-26T16:01:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd