“Consistency”, Scott said. “The trick is doing this for a week, two weeks, a month”.
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Apparently Bryant finds these ceremonies detrimental to the games, though it seems that most (if not all) could care less.
“You could have a little bit of a correlation to it”, Scott said.
Los Angeles lost its fourth consecutive game and are 1-5 on their current eight-game road trip. The second unit came in and helped sparked a 14-2 run to end the first quarter. D’Angelo Russell paced the Lakers with 23 points.
“Those were things I didn’t have to do in the past, but I surely have to do now”, he said.
The Wolves hung in there, though, and capitalized during overtime to come away with the win, albeit barely.
The question becomes whether the Lakers decide to give Clarkson the max contract they can or if he gets a lesser contract from them.
He was turned him off nearly immediately – too much style and not enough substance in the Lakers’ pitch.
“It was great for both of us”, Bryant said.
It will be different in the future, Scott pledged, an important concept with the Lakers on the lookout for free agents next summer, notably Kevin Durant.
“They’ll always be cool, it will always be fine”, Bryant said of the two’s relationship “my responsibility when Dwight and I played together was to get him to play his best basketball and that involves sometimes pushing buttons where guys don’t necessarily appreciate it at the time”.
The Lakers’ meeting with Aldridge included executives from AEG and Time Warner Cable discussing off-the-court opportunities. “It’s nuts. Where did time go?” He would sign a four-year, $80-million contract with San Antonio. “He’s getting some more open shots as well”.
“I love Coach Popovich”, Bryant said later. “I just kind of sit back and see what comes my way”. The Spurs responded by finishing the quarter with 12 straight points, highlighted by two Mills’ 3-pointers and a back-door layup from Manu Ginobili courtesy of a pass from Boris Diaw.
“When you are playing with a whole group of new players, it takes time to understand where your place is”, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They asked a few questions, he and his agents, and that was that”. The outburst followed Harden’s worst performance of the season – when he scored 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting in Tuesday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets. His shooting percentage this season (31 percent) is evidence.
The Lakers would take him, though.
Blake Griffin had 21 points to go along with 14 rebounds for the Clippers, while DeAndre Jordan grabbed 19 rebounds to go along with nine points.
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The shift is evident with Russell attempting 43 shots in the last two games to Bryant’s 25, and while Russell is still shooting 39.5 percent in the last eight games, his coach sees plenty of promise. But the Lakers will ride the positivity as long as they can.
