The Lakers didn’t practice Saturday, so there’s nothing new to report. There was quite a bit of reaction from Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Jordan Farmar after their first loss of the season Friday, however. Here’s a copy of the unedited story I just filed to the desk.
Upon further review, Kobe Bryant didn’t seem concerned about the Lakers’ first loss of the season, a 106-95 defeat Friday to the Detroit Pistons. He didn’t pitch a fit and stomp around the locker room, at least not in front of reporters.
He laughed along with the joke when someone said, “Well, I guess you guys won’t be going 82-0.” He shook his head in mock anguish and said, “Damn. … You just take it in stride, you take the wins with the losses and just keep moving.”
The Lakers won their first seven games, but when they stumbled, they stumbled hard against the Pistons.
They shot only 42.1 percent to 50.7 percent for the Pistons. They also sent the Pistons to the free-throw line 34 times, where they made 29 (85.3 percent). The Lakers were 11 of 16 (68.8 percent) at the line.
“As it is with all of our games, we want to improve our execution,” Bryant said nearly an hour after the game. “We want to improve our defensive balance. It’s just the usual stuff. It’s just little tweaks you make as the season goes on, so when the playoffs come around you’re clicking on all cylinders.”
When asked if he believed the Lakers took a step back, Bryant said, “Well, yeah, we stepped back because they really did anything they wanted to us offensively. … We’ll have to make some adjustments the next time we play them.”
Despite their 7-1 record, Bryant said the Lakers are still a work in progress.
“We have a lot of improvements to make,” he said after scoring a team-leading 29 points on 12-for-30 shooting. “I always kept saying it’s early, we’re playing extremely well, and we believe we can play much better. It’s a process.”
Most, but not all of the Lakers echoed Bryant’s comments.
Lamar Odom left the game with 4:30 remaining after picking up two unnecessary fouls out of frustration. He waved off Lakers coach Phil Jackson as he walked to the bench and unwrapped the tape on his wrist.
Later, after scoring 11 points in 20 minutes, the usually accommodating Odom grew testy during a live television interview. He turned his back on the camera before the interviewer had time to finish his questions.
Odom then gave print reporters a few quick answers before leaving.
“We didn’t play the right way and we just got blown out,” he said. “We didn’t take good shots as a team and we didn’t do anything good as a team: defense, offense, extra effort, loose balls, steals. We could have improved on everything. … Our defense wasn’t there and that’s why we lost.”
Jordan Farmar agreed that the Lakers’ poor defense cost them.
“We just didn’t play together on the floor,” he said. “Defensively, we were a step slow, and at one point, we were just going through the motions, and that was disappointing. We just had no rhythm to the game. … It’s a long season, 82-0 is pretty much impossible, so we expected it to happen at some point and it’s disappointing we had to go out like that, but give the Pistons credit.”
Vujacic update
The Lakers did not practice Saturday, which gave backup shooting guard Sasha Vujacic an extra day to treat his sprained right ankle. He was injured going after a loose ball Friday. He missed almost all of training camp last month because of a sprained left ankle.