Kobe Bryant Angry Over the Lakers’ Start to the Season


After two disappointing losses to Dallas and Portland, Kobe Bryant admits that he’s frustrated, and promises to turn up the heat in the locker room. He’s not the only unhappy Laker these days. From ESPN: “It’s going to be a little edgy because I’m not a very happy camper around here right now,’ Kobe Bryant said. ‘Some things we have to shore up, and we gotta make sure we keep a sense of urgency.’ It’s not just that L.A. is 0-2, but it’s how they seemingly regressed after their first loss to the Dallas Mavericks instead of learning from their mistakes. After the Mavs game, most of the Lakers identified two areas where they needed immediate improvement — one was protecting the ball and limiting turnovers and the other was upping the defensive intensity and effort. All that talk didn’t amount to much because the Lakers went from coughing up 14 turnovers and allowing the Mavs to score 99 points to racking up an egregious 25 turnovers against the Blazers that contributed greatly to the Blazers hanging 116 points on the board. […] ‘It’s hard to find positives right now,’ Steve Blake said, bluntly. […] ‘We’re taking things for granted a little bit,’ Steve Nash said. ‘We’re just not sharp. We’re not early on any of our rotations. We’re not necessarily proactive and we’re reacting, and I think it’s getting us in trouble.'”