Tonight at 10:30 p.m. at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Lakers (18-36) continue their march toward the lottery when they host the equally putrid Boston Celtics (19-36) in NBA action that can be live streamed here for free. Celtics fans can listen to the game on WEEI 93.7, while Lakers fans can find the radio broadcast on 710 ESPN.
Both teams are planning for the future, but only one had a disgruntled superstar grumbling over social media about the front office's moves. Injured Laker Kobe Bryant was not happy about losing backup point guard Steve Blake via trade, and vented on Twitter.
Not cool with @SteveBlake5 being gone AT ALL One of my closest teammates and psycho competitor GS picked up gem #smartmove
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 20, 2014
"Not cool with @SteveBlake5 being gone AT ALL One of my closest teammates and psycho competitor GS picked up gem #smartmove," Bryant tweeted. The "Black Mamba" shouldn't be so quick to rail against the move, though, as it unclogs L.A.'s point guard glut for Kendall Marshall to continue his hot play. In 26 games in Hollywood, Marshall has flourished under Mike D'Antoni, averaging 10.7 points and 9.8 assists a night.
Still, D'Antoni echoed Bryant's complaint about losing Blake. "He was the backbone we had this year, and you hate to lose that," said D'Antoni. "We've got 28 games. We're going to see if we can turn a negative thing into as much of a positive as we can. Develop the guys as much as we can and go into the summer with a little positive bounce."
Los Angeles is also expecting the return of center Pau Gasol, who has missed the last seven games but carried the purple and gold through much of the early season when they weren't completely decimated.
Boston didn't do much at the trade deadline, but point guard Rajon Rondo appears to be back in All-Star form. Even though the Celtics lost on Wednesday to Phoenix, Rondo missed out on a triple double by a mere three rebounds, putting up 18 points, 10 assists and seven boards.
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