They managed quite a bit, actually.
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With no starters in for the Wolves, the Lakers took advantage led midway through the fourth quarter. But you come to the realization that it’s time. It tied the score at 114-114 and set up overtime. But, out of a timeout, the Wolves committed a shot clock violation, giving the Lakers the ball with 9.4 seconds left.
Lakers coach Byron Scott was a member of the famous Magic Johnson-led showtime Lakers in the ’80s, and his last season was Bryant’s first.
Russell added that as much as he wants to bounce back and correct his mistakes, the head coach just won’t allow it.
The 3-18 Lakers are creating a buzz wherever they go in this season of Kobe’s farewell tour.
Kobe Bean Bryant was born in Philadelphia but was raised partially in Rieti, Italy, where his father played professional basketball. Kobe Bryant also chipped in 11 points, but was just 5-of-13 from the field.
Young received his third Did Not Play – Coaches Decision in his last four games and the shooting guard does not seem too thrilled about his minutes on the Lakers bench. Two nights ago he moved Russell and Randle out of the starting lineup, and declared they’d only be getting 20-25 minutes a night moving forward.
Kevin Martin scored 37 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 14 rebounds to lift the Timberwolves to a 123-122 overtime victory over the Lakers on Wednesday night.
So much that Towns called Russell “one of the best human beings on this planet”.
One key element to Russell’s success on the floor on Wednesday was having Kobe Bryant watching and coaching from the sidelines in the fourth quarter opposed to playing alongside him. They couldn’t control it anyway, they rationalized. And to top it all off he is the first ever guard to play 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association.
Randle was solid throughout and pulled down his 10th double-double, most among all players from the 2014 draft class. The rookie had a breakout game, finishing with 23 points, including three from beyond the arc.
The Raptors used a 9-0 fourth-quarter run, highlighted by a Biyombo alley-oop dunk, to pull away. His best play might have been an incompletion, a fearless drive in which he was fouled by Towns with 3:02 left in regulation. He met Bryant when he was 16 at a camp the Lakers star was hosting for high schoolers, and a friendship developed between the two. Those few who didn’t, though, said all that mattered was that their workload stayed the same and that the young guys had the opportunity to close out games. “Defensively, they did some really good things as well”.
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Not all was keen for the Lakers. Since then, during this eight-game road trip that won’t end until after Saturday night, Kobe has received mostly video tributes – from Washington to Detroit to Toronto, where he also got a pair of custom-made Nike sneakers. He came back to Minnesota to mentor young players such as Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Gorgui Dieng, Adriean Payne and even Ricky Rubio, with talk of an ownership stake in the team once he retired.
