Following the ugly 40-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott ripped into his team for their poor effort. Scott believed his players were playing scared against a very good Thunder squad led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Coach Scott went as far as to say the Lakers were “pathetic” on Saturday. The 54-year-old head coach with an old-school mentality called out his team for being in “awe” of the Thunder.
After being told about Scott’s comments to the media about their performance, Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell both disagreed with Scott’s assessment. The young duo didn’t think they were playing scared against a much better team led by two superstars via ESPN’s Baxter Holmes:
Both D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle said they didn’t agree with Byron Scott’s assessment that the Lakers were “scared” vs. OKC.
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) December 20, 2015
Russell and Randle struggled in the loss to the Thunder with a combined point total of 14. Randle finished with only two points on the night after going 1-for-7 from the floor while Russell was almost entirely ineffective from beyond the arc with the same shooting percentage (1-for-7). Lou Williams led the way for Los Angeles with a team-high 20 points, but it was nowhere near enough to keep them in the game against a clearly superior opponent.
Along with losing by 40 on the road to the Thunder, the Lakers were without Kobe Bryant on Saturday night. Although Bryant wants to play in every game from here on out, the five-time NBA champion couldn’t make it on the floor in Oklahoma City due to a sore shoulder.
The Lakers will continue their two-game road trip against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center. Los Angeles will try to get back on track against an 11-15 Nuggets team that has gone 5-5 in their last 10 games.
