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Kobe on struggling Lakers: 'If this was the Titanic, I'd go down with the ship'

Andrew D. Bernstein / National Basketball Association / Getty

Kobe Bryant will never let go. 

The Los Angeles Lakers are a mess. They lost again Sunday night, 104-87 to the New Orleans Anthony Davis' Pelicans, dropping to 5-16 on the season and 2-9 at home. 

Byrant was Kobe-esque, scoring 14 points on 6-of-18 shooting. He went 0-for-5 from deep, adding three rebounds and four assists. But Kobe is the captain, and the captain knows what he has to do: 

Make no mistake: the Lakers are going down. And the Los Angeles faithful weren't happy about what they saw Sunday. With the Pelicans up 20 in the fourth, they booed. And Nick Young heard. "I'm the life of the party," said Swaggy P, "so I don't like getting booed." 

"The fans deserve better," he added. "We deserve better of ourselves. I don't like this. I want to be apart of a good Lakers' season." 

We hate to write the three words no athlete or supporter wants to read, and we're sorry, Swaggy, but we have to: Maybe next year. 

The Lakers are a horrific basketball team. They went into Sunday with the league's worst defense, and the now 9-8 Pelicans had a good time, shooting 52 percent from the floor. Anthony Davis led the way, of course, scoring 23 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, on 11-of-15 shooting. He added six rebounds, a steal, and two blocks. He is the best. 

Bryant, now 62 points behind Michael Jordan for third place on the all-time scoring list, is taking the lost 2014-15 season as a lesson to be learned. 

"Not everything is going to be great and champagne and celebrations and winning championships," the 36-year-old said. "You've got to go through some hard stuff too.  

"I know everybody is waiting for a blowup, but honestly I really enjoy the process of it, the challenge of it and trying to figure it out." 

Lakers head coach Byron Scott made changes to his starting lineup Sunday, inserting Ed Davis and Ronnie Price and sending Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin to the bench. And the changes are said to be permanent, for now, at least. 

Price had three points and three assists at the point, while Davis had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting and seven rebounds. Lin added three points on 1-of-5 shooting and five assists, while Boozer had 12 points on 50 percent shooting and six rebounds. 

Boozer left the arena without speaking to the media, and he's no doubt not happy about coming off the bench. Lin called the situation in Los Angeles "one of the toughest situations I've ever been in since I've started playing the game of basketball." 

So, yeah, it's bad. 

With Scott questioning whether the Lakers can run his defense, and rightfully so, Bryant said, "Honestly, it's not very complicated." 

The Lakers are certainly proving Kobe wrong. 

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