Los Angeles Lakers coach Byron Scott said he was "very happy with the way training camp went" on Monday afternoon following the team's final practice ahead of the start of the 2014-15 regular season.
"I thought our guys did a hell of a job understanding what we need to do on the defensive end of the floor, and that’s going to have to be our bread and butter," he said.
With a smile, Scott added, "And if we can keep games close, then we have a guy — No. 24 — that’s proven over the years that he can pull games out, so we can rely on him when it comes down to that."
The media swarmed at Monday’s practice, and Scott is hoping the Lakers’ defense matches the suffocating display put on by cameramen, writers and microphone holders at the team's practice facility.
“Defense,” Kobe Bryant, a.k.a. No. 24, responded when asked what the Lakers did best entering the season.
After a disastrous year and a half under coach Mike D’Antoni, the Lakers have push to the opposite end of the spectrum. After D'Antoni's Lakers removed "defense" from their vocabulary, Scott brought it back in a big way. The message flowed through the Lakers’ training camp and continued to splash up at Monday’s practice.
“Defense,” point guard Jeremy Lin responded when asked what the strength of the team was entering the season. “I think we’re gritty and hard-nosed. I think that’ll be our calling card.”
Lin, who expects to start with Ronnie Price injured, downplayed any animosity that may exist between himself and the Houston Rockets, the team that traded Lin to the Lakers over the summer. Lin said he was still friends with those guys and that would continue before and after Tuesday’s season opener.
“These are my friends,” Lin said about the Rockets’ players. “For those 48 minutes, they won’t be.”
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Along with Lin facing his former team, Bryant facing Dwight Howard for the first time since Howard spurned LA in favor of Houston was a major story line developing on Monday afternoon. Likely, the NBA scheduled this match up with Bryant and Howard in mind, more so than Lin versus the Rockets.
As a veteran, Bryant managed to downplay the match up when asked about it. His coach, however, offered outside perspective on why he thought, perhaps, the partnership of Howard and Bryant didn’t work in LA.
“Kobe’s a real serious guy, wants to win championships,” Scott said while emphasizing he was not in the locker room. “I don’t know if Dwight’s that serious about it. I know No. 24 is. I think that probably was the clash.”
Notes: Scott said his team had enough guys to practice 5-on-5 on Monday, as Jordan Hill returned following a tweaked neck. Xavier Henry (knee) was back at the facility after taking a trip that included stops in New York and Germany. Nick Young no longer had a heavy cast on his thumb, but he did appear to be wearing protection over the area in question. Young (thumb), Henry (knee), Ryan Kelly (hamstring), Steve Nash (back) and Wayne Ellington (concussion) are all out for Tuesday’s game. Ronnie Price, who hurt his knee in the Lakers’ preseason finale, is questionable for the season opener.
