D’Angelo Russell seemed to enjoy playing without Kobe Bryant

Both Russell and Randle are expected to be heavily involved in the post-Bryant era of the Lakers and if benching them now helps that happen, the Lakers will not hesitate with the move.

Students draw a big portrait of NBA player Kobe Bryant with snow at a basketball court in Beihua University in Jilin City on December 7, 2015. “I hope that when they get their chance to play, [they] come out with a lot of energy and aggressiveness and just play better basketball”.

“We have great fans”, he said. Generally, the more they get within reason, the better they’ll develop.

The night Kobe Bryant shockingly dropped 81 points on the Toronto Raptors, he said, will go down as one of the most memorable moments of his career. “I’ve done that. So I’m completely fine with that”, Bryant said.

On the season, the LA Lakers average 96.5 points, 43.4 rebounds and 18.0 assists per game.

I mean, you can say that starting the actual game is a bit overrated as long as your getting significant minutes and I do buy that. Jackson played 25 minutes.

Lou Williams scored 21 points and Julius Randle added 15 points and 11 rebounds as Los Angeles lost for the ninth time in 10 games. We’re 3-17 so obviously it’s not working so I wanted to get some new blood in there, some fresh blood and see how those guys play.

Kyle Lowry scored 27 points for the Raptors, and Bismack Biyombo had a career-high 15 points with 13 rebounds. “Tomorrow is going to be a challenge, because were going on the road on the second half of a back-to-back and were playing a team thats one of the best in the league on both ends.”.

They heeded that advice in defeating four sub-.500 teams on this homestand.

Said Randle: “You’re never going to be thrilled about it as a competitor but it’s not in our control”.

One of the teams against which the Pistons experienced that issue this season was the Lakers.

He had a season-high 21 points on two occasions: October 30 at Boston and November 22 at the Los Angeles Clippers.

Amidst the celebration and fanfare surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers following Kobe Bryant’s retirement announcement, there’s a looming dark cloud. “Anybody, on any night, can beat you”. But most of all, they need minutes. Detroit is now 12-9, the first time they have been three games over. Some experts think that they are a bad team. “No disrespect to Kobe, but you know you have more opportunity because of who he is”, Russell said.

Still, a homestand sweep was a reasonable objective at this time last week, and the Pistons achieved it. Many rave of his talent and championships, while others argue that he’s a ball hog, makes poor shooting decisions, misses way too many shots and hasn’t adapted his game as he’s aged. “I thought it was good”, Van Gundy said.