The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their first loss in 2016 on Tuesday night when they faced the defending champion, Golden State Warriors. The Lakers were without Kobe Bryant and D’Angelo Russell, so they were extremely undermanned going up against the best team in the NBA. As the final buzzer rang, the Warriors walked off Staples Center with yet another win, 109-88.
With Bryant on the sidelines, the Lakers coaching staff opted with Anthony Brown in the starting lineup. The rookie out of Stanford has seen more playing time as of late and he has played well despite a slow start to the season.
However, after the game, head coach Scott spoke to the media and said he would like more out of Brown from the offensive end, via Bob Garcia of Sports Out West:
Byron Scott on Anthony Brown: "He still competes and battles. He has to become more consistent on the offensive end." #lakers
— Bob Garcia IV (@bgarciaivsports) January 6, 2016
Brown played 32 minutes on the night but had a plus/minus of -12. Brown finished with just four points to go along with three rebounds with 1-of-6 shooting from the field. The Lakers will need production off their bench moving forward and Brown can play a crucial role in that if he improves on both ends of the court.
The Lakers will be back in action on Thursday when it travels north to play the Sacramento Kings. Hopefully the team will have Bryant and Russell for that game and the rotations can go back to what were. Los Angeles has been playing very well as of late and despite this recent loss to the Warriors, they are 3-1 in their past four games.