On a night that was all about the final meeting of Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, the next generation of young National Basketball Association (NBA) stars took over down the stretch.
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Minnesota rookie Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.
The Los Angelexs Lakers weren’t having much fun these days, so it was time to reflect on their past, which, actually, wasn’t very fun for them either. “This is just a great thing to see that we are taking up from the people that came before us and trying to play at a high level”.
Russell, taken two picks after Towns in the 2015 NBA Draft, led the Lakers with 23 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter to help force overtime.
Bryant hit each of his first three shots on his way to seven first-quarter points, much to the delight of the crowd, but ultimately finished with a pedestrian 11 points while shooting 5-for-12 from the field.
With Bryant sitting out, Russell was in the limelight together with sophomore Julius Randle. “Maybe they’ll hug each other and say, ‘Hey, let’s let bygones be bygones, ‘ and go on about their separate ways”.
Then, thinking of D’Angelo Russell going off for career-highs coming from the bench, Byron Scott, for the moment, looks like a mastermind.
“When we were in the playoffs previous year, he sent me texts, giving me that encouragement to just leave it on the court”.
Russell’s 18-foot shot on the last possession missed, Roy Hibbert’s last-second attempt also missed, and the Wolves outlasted the Lakers 123-122. “He’s more comfortable”, Lakers coach Bryon Scott said of Russell after Friday’s game. On whether he keeps his job or not depends on the Lakers’ top brass. “We constantly think about them throughout the course of the year, and are always looking at what they are doing and how they are playing”.
Despite Bryant’s solid outing, the Lakers have problems, too. He has tons of loyal fans in North America, but if he ends up being voted in as a starter, it will be largely because of the rest of the world. “No other player averaging 25-plus points per game aside from Allen Iverson has shot worse percentages in the last 55 years”.
“I love Pop”, Bryant said of Popovich. “We talked about that earlier that this was on a back-to-back game and he seems to play better, but I don’t understand it”.
“You could have a little bit of a correlation to it”, Scott said.
However, they feel like they’re getting close.
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“Those were things I didn’t have to do in the past, but I surely have to do now”, he said. It’s your first shot, but it won’t be your last. For someone who has brought a lot to the National Basketball Association, the ceremonies and recognition are their way of recognizing one of the National Basketball Association greats before he hangs up his sneaker for good. He called it the longest slump of his career, and he clutched on his right wrist for most of the game after a collision in the first quarter. “Our dream might be too big but maybe it is the same dream you unknowingly had as that 8-year-old boy in the picture”.
