Just can’t take our eyes off woeful Lakers
Kobe and Co. real mess and it’s only going to get worse, so stay tuned folks
The Los Angeles Lakers — despite all logic that says a lottery-bound team doesn’t deserve constant attention as they pile up loss after loss — are going to be one of the most intriguing and most-discussed teams in the NBA this season for one reason. Kobe Bryant. One of the more forceful and largerthan-life personalities in the game, Bryant will be a fascinating case study in a Lakers season that seems already to be circling the bowl and headed down the drain.
For his part, Bryant is not disappointing in the season’s infancy.
The Lakers lost their fourth game to start the season, all by at least 10 points, and Bryant was asked what the fans should do.
“Freak out,” he said, a bit tongue-incheek. “It’s good for the soul.”
Bryant’s been a prime culprit behind the horrid Lakers start, shooting a miserable 32 per cent from the field and indiscriminately hoisting three-pointers to the tune of about eight per game, which he makes at a wretched 20 per cent clip. His self-assessment? “I (bleeping) suck,” he said after one particularly glaring loss.
The Lakers are basically a wreck at this early point in the season but it’s like a gruesome sight passersby can’t stop staring at. They do have some intriguing young talent in D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle but they also have soul-sapping veterans like Lou Williams, Nick Young and, yes, Bryant who are stopping the team from truly getting on with the business of rebuilding.
Coach Byron Scott already is under fire about a week into the season for his defensive schemes (the worst points-per-possession stat in the league as of Thursday) and for not using rookie point guard Russell in what was a winnable game with Denver earlier this week.
Scott revealed Wednesday to reporters that several players were involved in a verbal “altercation” on the bench late in the latest loss.
And he’s OK with it because, he said, it shows passion.
“A few guys kind of discussed it in a very angry way. If they would have just sat on the bench with a smile on their face, I would’ve been much more concerned.”
Because of what the franchise is (one of the historically great ones in league history) and because of who Bryant is (an icon in his 20th and perhaps final season) the Lakers will command attention as the season goes on, whether they can right the ship or not.
It might be not be deserved because they haven’t been good in while and don’t look like even playoff contenders for the next little while.
But judging by the first week of the season, they will be in no small way fun to watch. If it keeps going like this, there should eventually be some major blowup that descends into chao. But right now, they’re a bit comical in their ineptitude, and that’s always entertaining. ADD TO LIST: Chalk up another one for Canada, as Tyler Ennis finally made his season debut with the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night. The second-year point guard lost the summer and pre-season recuperating from shoulder surgery and had a couple of points and an assist in 81⁄
2 minutes. The question is whether Ennis will develop well enough under the tutelage of Jason Kidd on a young Bucks team to usurp old friend Grievis Vasquez — whose contract expires next summer — as Milwaukee’s backup point guard. CRAZY NUMBERS: What Stephen
Curry is doing in the early part of the season is nothing short of astonishing. How’s 179 points on 155 shots in five games for efficiency? How about 52 per cent shooting from threepoint range, 57 per cent from two and 95 per cent from the free-throw line? Yeah, astonishing as the Golden State Warriors are one of two unbeaten teams in this early stage of the season (guess who the other one is?) and seemingly picking up right where they left off last June. WHAT’S NEXT? We’ve seen the proliferation of alternate jerseys, throwback jerseys, tribute jerseys and now official game socks that making the outfitting of a team a mix-and-match exercise. Next? At least two teams —Milwaukee and Golden State — plan to break out alternate courts at various times this season. Yeah, different courts for different night and one quick question: How are the league’s marketing poohbahs going to find a way to sell them to unsuspecting fans/consumers? PUBLIC DISPLEASURE: The form-fitting short-sleeved uniforms worn at times by NBA teams are seen by some as an abomination, more like a rec league look than a pro sports one. LeBron James has expressed displeasure with the restrictive feeling of wearing them in the past and made his point more emphatically Wednesday night. The Cavs were wearing black sleeved jerseys for some reason and at one point in the game, James simply ripped his shirt apart at the seams so he could feel more comfortable shooting. RECORD-SETTERS: In these days of rampant transience among professional athletes, we may never see the likes of them in any sport, let alone just basketball. And for that alone Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and
Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs should be appreciated. Duncan, Parker and Ginobili reached a milestone Sunday, winning their 541st game together, eclipsing the standard set by Larry Bird, Kevin
McHale and Robert Parish with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s. BLISTERING START: The Detroit Pistons were always going to be one of the more intriguing teams in the NBA this season. Could Stan Van
Gundy construct a team approximating what he had in a Finals run in Orlando? He does have the big man he needs, it seems, with Andre Drum
mond off to an incredible start. In Detroit’s first four games, Drummond had 81points and 75 rebounds, joining, according to NBA.com stats, only Wilt Chamberlain and Dave Co
wens with at least 75 of each in his team’s first four games. MAKING HIS POINT: We told you last week about Steve Nash having his number added to the Ring of Honor in Phoenix and he reflected on his team’s revolutionary style. “People play that style of basketball throughout the league almost now and it was a special, special time because something was happening that we didn’t really know was happening at the time,” he said. And he also showed his self-deprecating style when he first addressed the crowd: “I’ve got a couple things to admit: I didn’t prepare a speech and they gave me a lot of drinks.” THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE? The Raptors 905 finally got going with their media day Wednesday and have been in training camp all week before opening their exhibition season on the weekend. The D-League is known for its experimental nature with some rule tweaks and there’s one other new wrinkle fans in Mississauga will see when the season starts. The team’s jerseys replicate the Raptors’, but with one major alteration: There’s the logo of a sponsor on the front of them. There’s always been a question of when — not if — the NBA will go to advertising on jerseys, so the D-League look may be a precursor.