Lakers' Coach Byron Scott “Close” to Breaking Point

After Sunday's loss to the Golden State Warriors, Lakers' coach Byron Scott expressed his dissatisfaction with the team's effort.

The lousy Los Angeles Lakers have an angry coach.

Byron Scott was not happy after his team allowed the Golden State Warriors to score 136 points in a lopsided defeat on Sunday night at Staples Center. Ominously, Scott repeated "I'm getting close" twice in response to questions about making changes.

"We have some guys right now--because of some of the injuries that we have--that feel that they're almost entitled because they got to play," Scott said after the game. "Well, we're losing anyway, so I ain't got to play you."

The coach's primary gripe was the team's lack of effort, and his patience with his players was beginning to run thin.

"To me, that was a lack of effort," Scott said. "Just getting back in transition, our guys were jogging. [I] showed it to them at halftime. [I] wasn't really happy about it. We can't win that way."

At one point, the coach's frustrations got the better of him, and he even slipped out a curse word before apologizing repeatedly.

"And I have more patience, probably, than anybody, but I can't sit there and watch players that are not playing hard—period," Scott clarified his message. "You either got to suck it up and play harder or sit over there [on the bench] with us."

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Scott promised that he would take dramatic steps on Tuesday in Atlanta. Although he did not expect to change his starting lineup, the Lakers' coach promised to shorten his leash and assume anyone not running hard was too tired to be on the court.

"Maybe some guys can't go eight, nine, 10 minutes straight," Scott made his thinly veiled threat. "Maybe it's two or three [minutes]. I don’t know, but if I see--in my eyes--that you're not giving that effort, then, I'll just pull guys out."

Scott said the locker room was quiet after the game. He expressed his message at halftime, but nothing changed in the second half. With nine losses in 10 games, the Lakers need anything to shock life into the season.

Scott pronging the starters with threats of being pulled may bring about a change to the life of the ball club. More likely, though, that morale boost--if it comes at all--will arrive with the personality, both on-court and off-court, of Nick Young, who expects to make his season debut on Tuesday in Atlanta.

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