But on some nights, it offers gifts.
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The act of balancing Kobe’s final season with developing the young players has been admittedly hard.
The team got word that Kobe has been kicking around the idea of playing overseas – and reached out through an open letter to the Mamba… which included a picture of him wearing a Viola shirt back when he was 8 years old.
Sunday, the equation was reversed. It was just the fact that he had so much confidence that even with all of these old players around, he cleared them out so he could go ISO on somebody. While the Bryant retirement may be big enough to cover up any messes, players being dissatisfied with their roles could prove otherwise.
The Pistons hope they offered enough reason to return. “I hope that when they get their chance to play, [they] come out with a lot of energy and aggressiveness and just play better basketball”.
“It was great to see him out here to see him play in person and to meet him”, Slay said.
“I just tried to get into his legs and make it tough and keep him off the glass”, Zeller said.
Five-time National Basketball Association champion Bryant was given a standing ovation as he left the court, and speaking afterwards he said: “Wow! Wow!” “In terms of comfort or peace of mind, I am completely fine”.
The Toronto Raptors defeated the Los Angeles Lakers by nine last night at the Air Canada Centre. He leads that group of freshman in sophomore players in cleaning the glass on defense, but it was his work on the offensive boards that stood out in Toronto. The next-best alternative was probably continuing to start Russell and Randle and altering the rotation to stagger their minutes with Kobe, but that might be too complex for Scott to handle. The Raptors will play the fourth game of their six-game homestand against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday…. Both of them brought their team up.
“Hopefully he’s happy. He’s a very intelligent guy”.
Said Randle: “You’re never going to be thrilled about it as a competitor but it’s not in our control”. One thing that hurt the Lakers against the Pistons was the health of Malone.
Head to head, the Lakers are 3-9 ATS in the last 12 meetings and the over is 7-1 in the last eight meetings in Toronto. “But you can’t do that in this league”. 500 since starting 3-0. Cory Joseph, who is getting more minutes than several starters, chipped in with 14. Jonas Valanciunas averages 9.3 rebounds per game. “Sitting on the bench and they started chanting, ‘We want Kobe!’ (I was like), give me 5 minutes”. “We played teams that could really score – you know, Houston, Phoenix – but if you look at the defensive ratings of those four teams, they’re not great”.
The task changes substantially now. It was, however, a win for a Raptors team that had lost two straight.
That’s why putting these games in the bag at home was so essential.
The Sixers got 40 points off the bench, including a game-high six assists from T.J. McConnell.
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“If I’m walking, I’m playing”, he said.
