John Wall Says He'll Show Lonzo Ball 'No Mercy' When They Face Off

Could be worth tuning in for.

John Wall
USA Today Sports

Image via USA Today Sports/Steve Mitchell

John Wall

Whether you care about either the Lakers or Wizards, Wednesday night's game between those two teams could be worth tuning into to see how both John Wall and Lonzo Ball handle their first match-up against one another.

For reasons that are probably obvious if you watched Ball's first career game against the Clippers/Patrick Beverley (and witnessed the subsequent overblown fan/media reaction to one dismal performance), the contest has plot lines centered around LaVar Ball talking shit. In this instance, the shit-talk occurred earlier in the week when Lonzo's overbearing (and over-covered) dad said, "Washington coming in here Wednesday? They better beware. Because Lonzo ain’t losing again! Not in the same week!”

The "not in the same week!" line was a reference to the Lakers' 119-112 Sunday night loss to the Pelicans. Note that the Lakers are 1-2 so far this year.

In response to that, Washington center Marcin Gortat offered a few predictions that made headlines:

Gortat later said he was just defending his teammate, while adding that LaVar is setting his son up. "He’s just putting his son in a spot, but at the end of the day, it’s all right," Gortat told NBA.com. "It’s nothing against Lonzo. I don’t know him. He’s a good kid. Talented kid, but he’s got to go against John."

In that same article, Wall added that he'd show no mercy to his 19-year-old rookie opponent. "Certain matchups you really get up for. Like when you play Steph [Curry], you definitely want to have a good game," Wall, a four-time All-Star, explained. "I’m playing against [Ball]. [Gortat] said what he said about me. I didn’t say anything. His dad has been talking. … That makes me want to go out there and lead my team and play the best I can play."

He continued, "We didn’t say nothing about him, nothing to him, and he says, ‘The Wizards better be ready because he don’t ever lose two in a row. Like, this is the league now. It’s a different ballgame."

Additionally, ESPN's Brian Windhorst added further context to tonight's game by stating on The Russillo Show that Wall would use the match-up to prove himself to the whole league:

You can catch the showdown at 10:30 p.m. ET because, as you probably long since figured out, nobody gives a shit if East Coast sports fans have to get up and go to work in the morning.

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