There was awful defense and questionable coaching.
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Bryant doesn’t know whether this season will be his last, as he has said repeatedly for months. Now it’s time to see what the players around him can do.
“That timing will come back”, Bryant said. He generated four points all night-one long two for himself and one assist-in pick-and-roll situations.
Ricky Rubio and Martin carried the Timberwolves with 28 and 23 points, respectively.
Russell finished with four points in 26 minutes of playing time.
It was another encouraging game from Randle, who finished with his first career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Kristaps Porzingis, a 7-foot-3 native of Latvia who was booed on draft night when the Knicks selected him with the fourth overall pick, sank three of his nine attempts from the field and knocked down nine of 12 free-throw attempts. A defensive specialist with a team that can’t play defense, despite having Hibbert on the team.
The results for the bench were mixed. Nick Young shot well and so did Lou Williams, especially in the second quarter when the Lakers built a 16 point lead. Brandon Bass is becoming a concern, however.
It was an encouraging performance from Bryant, especially with the fact that he didn’t show any limitations in his right leg. This will continue to be something to watch as the season rolls on. I do believe that this year will be a breakout year for him and he will elevate his play, but will barely miss being an All Star.
Much of that could be accredited the Lakers’ stagnant offense in the fourth quarter, but if the can clean up that aspect of the game it could prevent future slip ups of large leads.
So much has changed, but Kobe Bryant remains, unwavering, for better or worse, until the end. Allowing the Timberwolves to come back from 16 points down in the second half?
The Minnesota Timberwolves said hello to their 27th NBA season and in a very public way bade their first real goodbye to coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders with Wednesday’s stirring 112-111 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Per usual, he was unable to make any adjustments or motivate his team to play with more energy.
“If he plays like that, it’ll be a special season”.
The team barely scored for most of the fourth quarter. He shot 10 for 17 from the field and even managed to knock down two three pointers.
DeRozan scored 18 of his points in the second half, including five straight to give the Raptors (1-0) the lead for good in the final 90 seconds as they ran their all-time record in season-opening games to 12-9. Both Garnett and Bryant played alongside their current coaches, Sam Mitchell and Byron Scott.
One final note – Larry Nance, Jr. and Metta World Peace did not even dress for this game.
Julius Randle was strong in only the second regular-season game of his career after breaking a leg in last season’s opener against the Houston Rockets.
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It was disappointing on so many levels, but most tellingly, after the excitement and optimism of the summer and preseason, the team could not afford to blow a large lead and lose its home opener to a bottom-ranked team.
