"If [Nick Young] wants to talk, he'll come to me," LA Lakers coach Byron Scott responded when asked whether he and Young had spoken since the coach benched the backup guard for the second half of the Lakers' loss to the Houston Rockets.
"Like I said last night, I thought it was a one game thing. If it's not, then, we will talk," Scott said Young had a spirited practice on Monday. "Today, I didn't see any lingering effects of last night."
In particular, the Lakers' coach said he spoke with Young at halftime of Sunday's game regarding a missed defensive assignment. Young's response left the coach confused, and Scott decided that his sixth man would not be getting off the bench in the second half.
Looking at the play, one cannot imagine Young could offer any explanation for what he did on that play.
On Monday, Scott added, "The message I was sending last night was basically 'You didn't look like you wanted to play. You weren't defending, you were just kind of standing around. You were throwing the ball all over the place.' So, I chose not to play him."
Scott added, "If you look disinterested with body language and things like that, to me, you don't want to play."
At the end of Monday's practice, Young rolled his ankle on Jordan Clarkson's foot, but the 29-year-old did not sound too worried about his involvement for Tuesday's game.
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"A lot of it has to do with frustration building up from losing," Young said when asked about his fluctuation in his mood of late. "Losing can catch up to you. I'm still a human being. I'm still going out there trying to fight, but at the same time, you get tired of getting beat up. It can catch up to you."
Young touched on the frustrations of being unable to get off the bench and the fact that the Lakers only had 12 wins on the season.
"There ain't a day that go by that I don't want to be out on the court," Young responded when asked about his coach's comments that he didn't look like he wanted to play. "I love being here. I love playing basketball."
Young intelligently added, "I'm in no situation to go back and forth with the coach because I would never play."
With news that Kobe Bryant was set for surgery, Young offered his unique thoughts to how the team would adapt and fill the void left by Bryant: "Pretty much just give me the ball and get out of the way."
Young's mood already seemed improved as he walked away from the herd of cameras and tape recorders.
