After suspensions were doled out for Brandon Ingram (four games), Rajon Rondo (three games) and Chris Paul (two games), as a consequence of their roles in Saturday night's fisticuffs at Staples, Rondo was asked about what happened at Lakers practice on Monday.
"The league made a decision," he said when ESPN's Dave McMenamin asked about the suspensions, but deflected when McMenamin pushed him on Houston's belief—particularly Carmelo Anthony, who was next to Paul before punches were thrown—that he had spit on Paul, which prompt Paul to stick his fingers in Rondo's face and set everything off.
"It's best for me not to talk about the situation," Rondo said. "It is what it is. I look forward to getting back and helping my team this weekend." When asked a little later what the caused the fight, he answered with a deadpan expression: "Basketball. The game."
Coach Luke Walton says Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma will fill in for Rondo and Ingram during their suspensions.
Ingram was surprised at the relatively brief length of his suspension, also stating that he apologized to his teammates for igniting the scuffle.
On the other end of Saturday's altercation was Carmelo Anthony. After multiple initial video replays failed to reveal a Rondo loogie (later confirmed with better quality video, which is why Rondo got one more game than Paul), a popular Twitter breakdown appeared to blame some inadvertent Melo spittle for the snafu.
Of course TMZ caught up with Melo as he was leaving Catch restaurant in L.A. to ask if he was guilty party, refuting what he said after the game. He was obviously dismissive of the suggestion: "Stop playin'." When they followed up by asking about the suspensions, he said Houston teammate Chris Paul "lucked out" by only getting a couple of games.
We're now as officially tired of this story as Melo appears to be.
