In the first three games of the 2015-16 National Basketball Association season, things have not gone according to plan for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant.
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“I know he’s not happy with it”, coach Byron Scott said.
“I’m just playing like [expletive] right now”. “I thought yesterday he did a much better job of getting to the basket, and he took a few of the shots that we had been talking about as well”.
Now, as has been reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, Kobe has officially called himself the “200th best player in the league right now”.
Bryant can take his shooting woes as a motivation to practice more of his shots to help his team win at least a game against those three teams.
Added Scott: “He’s frustrated….” Also previous year, they beat the Lakers three games to one in the season series. While Scott, who played alongside Bryant that year, said Bryant being a reserve was different than Russell being a starter and the primary ballhandler, he did see similarities, mainly with age and expectations.
The final score Friday reflected nothing Scott hoped to bring to the franchise that employed him for 11 years as a player: Sacramento Kings 132, Lakers 114.
Kobe is also taking shots away from the up-and-comers on the team like Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell, and every time he touches the ball, there’s around a 50/50 chance he’ll either shoot or pass. He’s the only player in the league with roughly the same number of field goal attempts as passes. Nick Young was barely a factor, netting eight points on 2-of-5 shooting, even as fiancée Iggy Azalea sat two seats from the end of the Lakers bench. Russell stays for extra work after morning shoot-arounds on game days and then seemingly spends a lot of energy during personal workouts the last two hours before tipoff. I frickin’ suck. I’m just playing like s**t right now. I’ve got to capitalize for him, that’s all.
“I think if we can get him to 60-something [games], I think that would be great”, Scott said. Just got to make them.
Kobe Bryant’s poor display throughout the season continues as the shooting guard believes that he is responsible for Lakers recent poor show as he is not being able to finish for them.
When you’ve been a superstar for almost your entire career, to simply make the seamless transition to “just another guy”. “But they’ll fall. Then we won’t be having this conversation”. The Los Angeles Lakers are averaging 112.5 points on 41.8 percent shooting and allowing 122 points on 48.9 percent shooting.
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Despite their struggles in the first half, the Lakers, who began the game in a 15-0 hole, were only down 54-45 at intermission.
