Don’t look now, NBA fans, but the Lakers might actually be—gasp—pretty good this season. They’re not going to win the NBA title or anything, and they probably won’t even make it to the postseason. But thanks to the steady improvement of young players like D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle and the surprising heroics of veterans like Nick Young, the Lakers aren’t an automatic win for opposing teams anymore. Through the first 18 games of the 2016-17 NBA season, they sit at 9-9 and have already won more than half as many games as they won during all of last season. They appear to be headed down the right track.
That continued on Sunday night when the Lakers played the Hawks at home. Despite missing both Russell and Randle due to injuries, the Lakers were able to overcome a double-digit deficit to beat the Hawks 109-95:
And that excited celebrity Lakers fan Snoop Dogg. Snoop has been forced to watch a lot of really bad Lakers games in recent seasons, so he responded to their latest win by gloating about it on Instagram. Specifically, he took aim at Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz, who sat courtside at Staples Center to watch his hometown Hawks take on the new-look Lakers:
Snoop talked some trash to 2 Chainz on Instagram and said that, while Atlanta might have Los Angeles beat in other areas of life, L.A. is still a better basketball city than ATL, despite the Lakers’ recent struggles. You can watch Snoop go off here:
"2 Chainz, I see you at the game," Snoop said. "We ain’t the same Lakers you thought we was. I see you got floor seats. You could have came over here and smoked with your nigga and enjoyed this loss y’all took. We ain’t the same Lakers. We different. We on our shit. Atlanta, y’all got the best strip clubs. Y’all got the hottest raps out right now. But this basketball shit? Y’all can’t fuck with us! 2 Chaaaaaaainz! You know I still love you, nigga, but this Lakers. We back."
"Back" might be a bit of an overstatement at this point. The Lakers are 9-9, not 15-3. But we don’t blame Snoop and all of the other Lakers fans out there for celebrating regular-season wins. They’ve been hard to come by lately, so why not?
Oh, and in case you're wondering, 2 Chainz didn't seem to mind Snoop's trash-talking all that much. He didn't respond directly to him, but he posted this IG clip of him sitting damn-near on the Lakers' bench and kicking it with Metta World Peace in the middle of the game:
It seems everyone is enjoying the Lakers' success thus far this season.
