For the first time at Staples Center, Byron Scott will take the sidelines for the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
“I’m excited about that,” Scott said Thursday morning. “Now, I need to figure out how long it’s going to take me to get from Redondo Beach down to Staples Center. That’s trouble. I might need to leave at 4(pm).”
After cracking a few jokes about LA traffic and Nick Young’s absence from another practice, Scott got serious about what to expect Thursday night. At Thursday’s shootaround, Scott said he was considering sitting Nash as a cautionary step. Scott said he may even give Kobe Bryant a night off on Sunday in Ontario.
“The main objective is to get both those guys to play as many games, obviously, as possible. Eighty-two games is a long season,” Scott said. “Sometimes, we got to be a little bit smarter and make sure we give those guys ample time to rest and recover.”
To this point, Nash has been able to control his injuries and has looked surprisingly good. Scott called Nash a “difference maker” and spoke about how the Canadian point guard can be another coach on the floor.
“From what I’ve seen in the healthy Steve Nash compared to the one I saw last year, he’s moving so much better. I mean, his body, you can just tell by the way he’s running and getting up and down the floor, that he feels a lot better,” Scott said. “That, to me, is the biggest difference. He’s not going to forget how to play basketball.”
Scott would not fully commit to sitting Nash for the 2013-14 Lakers’ Staples Center debut, but the coach said that he had already talked to Nash about the possibility. Part of the reason for sitting Nash was also to get a closer look at Ronnie Price.
Price did not play in the Lakers’ preseason opener, but the coaches have been raving about the 31-year-old point guard. Jeremy Lin would likely be the starter in place of Nash, and Price would get minutes with the second unit.
Tip-off for the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors is 7:30 pm Pacific Time.
