The act of balancing Kobe’s final season with developing the young players has been admittedly hard.
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Sunday, the equation was reversed.
Bryant believes the Lakers let one get away when the Pistons beat them in five games in the 2004 NBA Finals. Despite the loss, Toronto is still 12-9 on the season overall and 4-4 at home. Bryant’s tale has been told, even if it shoots 30 percent from the field to the finish line. I hope he doesn’t get fined or anything. The Lakers are bad and the only way they’re going to get better, would be to give their young players important playing time. That goes the same for DeMarre Carroll, who has shot 36% or lower in four of the last six games.
“To get all four is obviously good”, Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said.
A tone of finality hung over the Toronto Raptors’ Monday game when the Los Angeles Lakers came to visit.
Bryant’s offensive outburst that night – January 22, 2006 – was the second-most of any player in National Basketball Association history.
“For about a year straight, all I heard was ‘Dee-troit Bas-ket-ball, ‘” Bryant said.
This was not one of those great battles, however. The Lakers have to send that pick to the 76ers, unless it stays in the top 3, which seems more and more likely as the season continues and the losses pile up.
I mean, you can say that starting the actual game is a bit overrated as long as your getting significant minutes and I do buy that. Jackson played 25 minutes.
Randle had 15 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. “Sitting on the bench and they started chanting, ‘We want Kobe!’ (I was like), give me 5 minutes”. Randle has been averaging 11.8 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2 assists a game. Carroll is considered one of the toughest players in the league so he is playing through the injury but he has not played at the level the Raptors hoped when they signed him this offseason.
“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”.
The crowd of 20,163, the largest ever at Air Canada Centre to watch the five-time National Basketball Association champion, certainly showed its appreciation for his 20 years in a Lakers uniform.
Los Angeles dropped its third game in a row. Well, considering that Kobe Bryant has made his retirement official, the time for Scott to look at his younger resources needs to start now.
“He was great and that is the T we need on a nightly basis”, teammate DeMar DeRozan said. 500 since starting 3-0.
Julius Randle had to wait for his number to be called but made a big impact in his limited time on the floor.
The task changes substantially now.
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Nine of their next 10 games come against opponents with winning records. “It helped me realize how fortunate I’ve been to play this sport”.
