NBA

Injured Dwight Howard Fouls Out, A Fab Melo Cameo, And Other Weird Things From Lakers-Celtics

Boston’s TD Garden had a total case of the weirds Thursday night as the Celtics obliterated the Pau-less Lakers, 116-95. The Celtics continue to surge without Rajon Rondo, the Lakers revert to the terrible team we’ve known them to be this season, and we spotted one very confused fan.

I know fan, us too. Us too.

There was a lot of controversy before the game surrounding Dwight Howard and the severity of his shoulder injury. He was a game-time decision, but wound up playing after sitting out the previous three games. He scored 9 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in 28 minutes.

His underwhelming effort was marked by some controversy towards the end, where Mike D’Antoni left him in the game despite the Lakers being down by 30 — and that shoulder that was supposedly hurt. As the fates would have hit, Howard fouled out. The basketball gods did what Howard’s coach, for some reason, did not, leaving D’Antoni in deep, self-psychoanalytical thought:

Shaq chimed in of course…

SHAQ on Dwight Howard: “Great players play through pain. If you’re so hurt, quit smiling all the time.”

— Legion Sports (@MySportsLegion) February 8, 2013

…and Kevin Garnett became the 16th player in NBA history to notch 25,000 points. It made him the only player in NBA history to score 25,000 points, grab 10,000 rebounds and dish 5,000 assists. He has 1,500 blocks and steals to go along with that, too. Not bad.

There was also a “>Fab Melo sighting. Listen, we said this game was strange. You should’ve listened.

[Getty Images, fan, D'Antoni]