Finally, D'Angelo Russell and Byron Scott agree on something. But that something is another indication that Scott could be fired at the end of the year.
Both the rookie point guard and Los Angeles head coach lamented the Lakers inability to guard the opposing team, following the Memphis Grizzlies' 128-119 victory on Wednesday night.
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"We haven't been able to guard anybody," Scott told the Los Angeles Daily News. "Teams are scoring pretty much at will outside and inside."
Russell, who had 22 points and a career-high eight assists, confirmed Scott's comments via lakersnation.com tweets.
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D'Angelo Russell (on TWCSN): "They (Memphis) ran their offense to perfection. We have trouble communicating for a full possession."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) February 25, 2016
D'Angelo Russell continuing: "We never really had all 5 guys locked in on defense, always either one or two guys sleeping." (on TWCSN) — Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) February 25, 2016
The Lakers remain 28th in the NBA in points allowed, surrendering 107.1 per game. They are 29th in point differential (-9.5) and in field goal percentage allowed (47.1 percent per game).
One of Scott's considered strengths when he came to the Lakers was his ability to coach defense. To be fair, he is dealing with several young players and an aging Kobe Bryant, whose defense already appears to have retired.
With 24 games left in the season, the Lakers would figure to have learned out to play a few possessions with all five defenders in sync.
General manager Mitch Kupchak can't be happy hearing Russell's comments. Publicly, he already has given Scott a pass for the Lakers' objective in 2015-16 being about sending Bryant into retirement in a manner befitting the superstar over the necessary development of the team's young talent.
The problem with that tact is that the Lakers, who didn't have Russell, Julius Randle, Larry Nance or Kobe (at least for the last 46 games of the season), also finished 29th in the league in scoring defense in 2014-15, giving up 105.3 points per game, and in opponents shooting percentage (46.6 percent per game).
Scott has not been able to coach defense in Los Angeles. Russell pointing that out may or may not have been a bit of twisting the knife in the coach's back.
But he's not wrong.
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