He might be having a lot of fun of late, but D’Angelo Russell was fined $15k for kicking the ball into the stands after the Lakers win over the Warriors.

There hasn’t been much that hasn’t gone D’Angelo Russell’s way in the month of January. He’s playing some of the best basketball of his career, powering the Lakers to wins and hitting some enormous shots in huge situations. And he’s doing it while having a lot of fun along the way.

On Saturday, that took the form of a celebratory punt of the ball into the stands after Steph Curry’s late-game heave fell way short.

LAKERS WIN A CRAZY 2OT GAME AGAINST GOLDEN STATE

GAME OF THE YEAR ANYBODY???

LEBRON 36/20/12
CURRY 46/3/7 #NBA #NBAX #Lakers #Warriors pic.twitter.com/sQNAlDW8bd

— TalkHoops (@Talkhoops1) January 28, 2024

The best part of that, though, is that D’Lo wasn’t even in the game and sprinted from off the bench to do that. The NBA, though, doesn’t care about how much fun D’Lo is having.

The NBA fined D’Lo $ 15,000 on Monday for kicking the ball into the stands.

Perhaps the league is fining D’Lo for his poor form. Anyone who has played or watched soccer — and probably anyone who doesn’t even follow the sport — could tell how badly Russell caught that. Simply, the NBA might be fining him because of how bad it looked.

As Dan Woike of the LA Times pointed out, though, there was something more surprising about D’Lo’s kick.

Russell has been red hot this month, averaging 23.9 points and 6.2 assists on 50.8% shooting overall and 50% shooting from the 3-point line. Yes, he’s making half of his 3-pointers. He’s attempted 94 and made 47 of them.

Now that he has long-range shooting down, perhaps he should work on his volleys next.