History of bad blood between LaMarcus Aldridge, Serge Ibaka goes back years

Former teammate Damian Lillard: ‘LA and Ibaka always get into it lol'

Courtesy: Screen grab (NBA TV)

SAN ANTONIO – If you caught the final minutes of Monday night’s San Antonio Spurs versus Toronto Raptors game, then you’ll recall the moment when LaMarcus Aldridge shoved Serge Ibaka after the Raptors center put his forehead up against the Spurs’ star power forward. 

The two were quickly separated by their teammates after exchanging some heated words, resulting in both getting hit with technical fouls.

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For fans of the Portland Trailblazers -- Aldridge’s previous team -- and former teammate Damian Lillard, the Aldridge-Ibaka scuffle is nothing new, with even a little bloodshed coming from their first encounter. 

On Dec. 23, 2014, the Blazers were up 115-108 against the Oklahoma City Thunder -- Ibaka’s former team -- in overtime when Aldridge and Ibaka went at each other with less than 10 seconds to finish the game.

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The two pushed and shoved one another near the back of the baseline, only to later have each other in a brief headlock. 

In a postgame interview, Aldridge said the scuffle left him with scratches on his cheek and on his back.

“It was just a long night of unnecessary stuff going on … This is unnecessary (pointing to his cheek) and a couple of scratches on my shoulder, that’s unnecessary,” Aldridge said after the Blazers and Thunder game. “I felt like the game was over with and he (Ibaka) was just doing extra stuff that wasn’t needed.” 

Fast-forward nearly three years later, with both men playing for new teams, Aldridge and Ibaka once again came to near-blows on the same side of the court Monday night.

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Aldridge said his second exchange with Ibaka was pure competitiveness and the scuffle is just part of the game. 

“Just being competitive, just playing basketball, things happen, it happened and just move past it,” Aldridge said in Monday night’s postgame interview. “It kind of woke me up a little bit.”

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The Spurs leave San Antonio for a four-game road trip, with the first stop landing in Miami to face the Heat on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m. CT.

agarcia@ksat.com 


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