D’Angelo Russell lone bright spot in Lakers loss to Spurs

“Every chance I get, I sit next to him and bend his ear”.

James Harden, Klay Thompson, and Gordon Hayward are names that, for me, should be looked at way before thinking about selecting Kobe as part of the final 12 that will be on the plane to Rio next year. With so much history between the teams, a rivalry is only natural to occur but it really peaked during the early 2000s when the Spurs were led by Tim Duncan and the Lakers were led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Rookie guard D’Angelo Russell said he wants to snag some memorabilia at some point. Kobe finished with 12 points, four assists and six rebounds.

After being on the losing end of a lopsided 126-97 loss to the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers’ legend and the soon-to-be retired Kobe Bryant addressed his relationship with former teammate and current Rockets center Dwight Howard.

Such is the standard we have come to expect from the man that holds the record for most 3-point field goals made in an NBA Finals series (27). Bryant and Howard were seen talking to each other on several occasions and Howard stated what they were talking about, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

“I love coach Popovich”, Bryant said.

“That’s the LaMarcus we need all the time”, said forward David West. “We need him being aggressive, demonstrative, confident and just playing his game. We have had had some epic battles”.

With the Lakers feeding from the energy they kept the game close, until the Spurs made one of their runs. “I thought our first unit was doing a good job and the second unit was awful”. Spurs led 79-71 after three. Mills was a ridiculously efficient 9-for-11 with 22 points off the bench and the Spurs coasted for most of the fourth to an easy win.

Besides Leonard, he is San Antonio’s best wing defender, and the duo are crucial to the Spurs suffocating half court defense this season.

Patty Thrills Mills came off the bench to provide the energy he has done through-out his career.

Bryant scored 11 points in the second quarter to raucous celebration, spearheading a 13-0 run that cut the deficit to nine.

“I felt pretty good and I feel like my legs are starting to catch up, better late than never”, Bryant said. It also provided a bad ending after Russell opened the first quarter with nine points on a 4-of-4 clip.

Johnathan Simmons Electrifies If you missed the game, then you probably did not see the dunk that Simmons had on an airball, I mean pass from Aldridge (video below). Howard also added that Bryant is “one of the greatest players to ever play the game”.

Ray McCallum Gets Start, Does Well McCallum stepped into the starting lineup for Tony Parker (rest) and played decent.

“The one thing that I’ve seen in KB over this past two or three weeks is that he is just much more mellow and much more at ease”, Scott said. He finished with five points, three rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.