Bryant was questionable for Friday’s game after sitting out the Lakers’ morning shootaround with a sore throat, but he is now set to start at shooting guard Friday night as he usually does.
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Now, though, Bryant said he’s a changed man. “Can’t do it”, he said after Friday’s 132-114 loss to the Sacramento Kings at Sleep Train Arena here.
According to the report, Russell stated that while he is comfortable playing from the bench, he admits it is better to be in the starting lineup as it helps him strategize and discover the best tactics to break the opponent’s defenses. “I can always get to those spots”.
“The first thing that Magic (Johnson) taught me when I got in this league is that we win championships by defending every single night”, Scott said. We were careless with the ball. The offense doesn’t complete its first action until 13 seconds are left in the shot clock, but eventually does create a window to score with an off-ball screen from Kobe Bryant for D’Angelo.
“He’s 19 years old and played in two professional games”.
“I feel like he understands the game even more than he did at that point (during his Boston days)”, Cousins said.
One deviation to the plan could be having Kobe Bryant take over a larger role when the game starts to slip away, but both he and the five-time champion agree that it is better to let the young Lakers – like Randle, D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson – grow through adversity. Settling for a three-point shot while the shot clock winds down? Fans who dislike Rondo are also anxiously waiting to say, “I told you so”, which is sickening but that is the type of world in which we live.
Despite the loss dropping them to 0-2 on the season, the LA Lakers saw strong performances from its young core.
“It’s hard”, Bryant said. Point guard Rajon Rondo showed off his playmaking with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting, eight assists and a handful of up-and-under layups.
He played aggressively and was in attack mode on the offensive end, which opened up the game for him and his teammates, telling signs of a true leader. The Lakers have given up their most points in the first two games since allowing a franchise-record 266 to start 1982-83. And then he steered his answer in a different direction altogether, toward the team’s young players. I feel like Kobe, through two games, has done a fair job.
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Despite 22 points and four rebounds from Clarkson, the Lakers, quite frankly, could never catch up. Let him read the flow, which is part of me taking a step back, which needs to be done. While he is averaging 18.5 points and four rebounds in 25.5 minutes, more than half of his shot attempts have come from beyond the arc.
