Byron Scott calls Lakers 'soft'
He didn't go so far as to invoke Charmin, but Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott echoed Kobe Bryant's previous sentiments Wednesday night, repeatedly calling his team "soft" after they got obliterated by the intra-city rival Clippers.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 43 points en route to a 114-89 loss, their ninth in the past 10 games they've played against their Staples Center co-habs and once-hapless little brothers.
"(I have) a lot of respect for that team over there," Scott said after the game. "They're a good team. I don't consider them a physical basketball team, but they came out and punched us, and we were soft, period."
Asked whether he had a message for his players, Scott replied: "I told them to man up, basically."
Bryant finished with a season-low four points on 2-of-12 shooting - the fewest points he's ever scored when attempting at least 12 field goals. Still, his response to Scott's comments essentially amounted to an "I told you so."
"He said the same thing I said. He just didn't use a toilet paper analogy," Bryant said.
Maybe that's why Nick Young conflates the two, saying that Scott and Bryant are "like the same person."
For what it's worth, Lakers power forward Ed Davis agreed with his coach's assessment.
"We played soft," said Davis, who, along with Bryant, was an astounding minus-33 in 23 minutes of floor time. "That's all there is to it. We played soft."
"They're just better," Bryant said of the Clippers. "They've just got better players. They just come at you in waves. They're just deeper. Got a lot of shooters on the floor, and we're shorthanded."
To Bryant's point about the Lakers being undermanned, they did play without guards Ronnie Price and Wesley Johnson, out with a broken nose and the flu, respectively. But just about every squad is dealing with maladies at this point in the season (though the Clippers have had a relatively clean bill of health) and Price and Johnson don't exactly qualify as debilitating losses.
Scott, for his part, wasn't in the mood to make excuses for his team.
"We'll get a response from practice (on Thursday)," he said, "one way or another."