As far as head coach Byron Scott is concerned, an off-shooting Kobe Bryant will not be enough for him to keep the Lakers star guard on the bench.
The Black Mamba has been making headlines recently, but in a negative way. He tied the worst shooting performance of his career in the humiliating loss against the Warriors where he shot just 1 of 14. Bryant had the same futile effort against the Spurs back in 2014.
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Regardless, Scott has opted to keep the faith in Bryant.
"I would never, never, never do that," Scott said about benching Bryant, according to ESPN. "That's not an option whatsoever. No, that's not an option."
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It remains to be seen if that move will put Scott further into the fire after already being hit over how he is handling the development of the younger players on the roster. Scott has been criticized for holding back rookie D’ Angelo Russell but the former Laker guard stands pat on his decision on how he intends to do things.
Bryant was seemingly unperturbed by his awful shooting performance, saying that even if he scored 80 points for that game, the Lakers would still have lost.
“My shooting will be better," he told Complex Sports. I could’ve scored 80 tonight. It wouldn’t have made a damn difference. We just have bigger problems. I could be out there averaging 35 points a game. We’d be what, 3-11? We’ve got to figure out how to play systematically in a position that’s going to keep us in ballgames,”
Understandably, one game doesn’t define Bryant, especially considering that he hasn’t fully recovered from his injuries. Unfortunately the bad thing about it is that his terrible shooting touch comes at a time when the Lakers are in a lot of heat, particularly because they are at the bottom of the Western Conference standings at 2-12.
The Lakers play the Trail Blazers Saturday and Scott intends to utilize Bryant before re-evaluating if he is good to go the following night against the Pacers.
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