He has set up a double standard that doesn’t promote the team play he’s claiming to want his group to enact, and instead has created a fraternity environment in which legacy means more than doing what’s right as a coach.
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But with no other centre on the roster, the Raptors used a frontcourt duo of Patrick Patterson and James Johnson to some success Friday night, but that small a frontcourt is not sustainable.
The Toronto Raptors could use a nice road win after losing six of their last nine games.
Point guard Kyle Lowry scored 25 points, leading the Toronto Raptors to a 102-91 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night at Staples Center.
Lowry didn’t score from the field inside the arc with the other four points coming from the free throw line where he has now hit 34 in a row from the charity stripe. Is Bryant really ready to play over 30 minutes a game?
After starting the first 10 games with a 7-3 record, the Raptors are in a bit of a slump as they are now 7-6 and have lost their last three.
Defensively, the focus when playing the Lakers is always to try to contain Kobe Bryant. Bryant has always played well against the Raptors. In just the first 11 games, Scott has used a multitude of different lineups (20 to be exact) and has experimented with a variety of rotations.
He lit Los Angeles up early and often from three-point range knocking five of his first six attempts. He was only able to come back in the offseason; but considering the seriousness of his injury, it’s impressive that he was able to return to playing after all. “From his perspective, he never looked like he was forcing the issue, the ball just happened to find him every time and he knocked down shots”.
If Kobe does retire this season, it will be unfortunate that he had to leave under these circumstances.
“The hardest thing to do in the National Basketball Association is to play with a big lead”, Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. “Then Lowry has been extremely successful against us over the previous year and a half, so we have to control that”. The Los Angeles Lakers head coach added, “He’s getting a pretty good indication of what the point guards are all about in this league”.
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It’s almost impossible to get an accurate read on where this team stands as they head back home – where they’ll play eight of their next 10 games – and the schedule begins to turn in their favour. The fact that Bryant didn’t take it easy on DeRozan despite the age difference was taken as a sign of respect by DeRozan and the respect for Bryant grew even bigger. The Utah Jazz rank 29 in offensive points per game and got a lot of open looks in a 93-89 win over Toronto on Wednesday. “Only time will tell”. Lakers fans wanted to see Russell in fourth quarters so that he can learn what it is like to play in crunch time since they had nothing else to lose but at the beginning of the year Scott was not obliging.
