NEW YORK — Within a short telephone conversation, Kobe Bryant displayed both his friendship with Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and his insatiable competitiveness.

Anthony had just scored 62-point in New York’s win against Charlotte on Friday, breaking Kobe Bryant’s record set at Madison Square Garden at five years ago that even sent the partisan Knicks crowd greeting the Lakers’ star with “M-V-P” chants.

“I called him that same night to congratulate him and told him, ‘Today you can cool off,'” Bryant said referring to when the Lakers (16-28) enter a matinee Sunday against the Knicks (16-27) at the World’s Most Famous Arena. “You had a big night the other night. Today you can afford to 2 for 40.”

Good luck.

The Lakers have also lost 15 of their past 18 games, including its last three, while ranking 29th out of 30 NBA teams in total defense (105.8 points). Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni laughed at the suggestion Wesley Johnson would guard Anthony after starting for the past 12 games. D’Antoni said he’s making the switch because of concerns Wesley and Kelly could fall into early foul trouble and for fatigue concerns into sharing defensive responsibilities on Anthony.

“We’re going to try to give him contested 2’s and keep 3’s away as much as you can,” D’Antoni said. “He’s going to score. That’s what he does. He’s going to score. We have to keep everyone less out of the flow and hope he doesn’t have a great game. But he could.”
Continue reading “Kobe Bryant dishes on Carmelo Anthony, scoring records, recovery” »

ORLANDO — So much for that infectious smile.

Lately, Lakers forward Nick Young has provided several of other facial expressions on the court, and it’s cost him.

Young picked up his fourth technical foul in the past five games during the Lakers’ 114-105 loss Friday to the Orlando Magic at Amway Center, bouncing the ball with 30.8 seconds left in the third quarter after receiving a no-call on a drive to the basket.

Two of those technicals stem from Young’s ejection last week in Phoenix where he was swarmed by numerous defenders.
“It’s tough. I’ve been frustrated,” said Young after posting 16 points on only 6-of-16 shooting. “It’s everything going around. I’m also fighting for that respect factor too and playing with passion.”

Young is nowhere near the NBA-maximum 16 technical fouls that yield an automatic suspension. But he has already forfeited $14,634 in player salary for a one-game suspension, $8,000 in technicals, and $2,000 for an ejection. Young makes about $1.1 million this season and has a player option next season worth $1.2 million.

“It’s tough losing to teams. We’re better than that,” Young said. “It hurts. I came here saying I’m about to retire today.”

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni blamed Young’s latest technical foul on frustration and fatigue, while Pau Gasol suggested Young will have to remain positive.

“The more positive and active we get on the floor, the better off we’ll be,” Gasol said. “People are frustrated and down on themselves. It carries and drags people around them.”

Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com

ORLANDO –Who says Mike D’Antoni doesn’t talk enough about defense?

He spent nearly all of his pre-game availability before the Lakers visited the Orlando Magic on that topic, still upset over the Lakers’ loss to Miami where Chris Bosh and LeBron James combined for 58 points. Meanwhile, Miami had a field-day against the Lakers in the paint (52 points), on the glass (48-35) and from three-point range (eight of 20).

“We were just watching film and we give up 15 to 20 points by guys not paying attention and not doing the things we talk about, and we’re trying to get that right,” D’Antoni said.

Amid eight losses in their past 11 games this month, the Lakers have conceded an average of 113 points. Will that trend ever stop?

“Yeah, if they want,” D’Antoni said. “There’s nothing wrong with the defense [schematically]. It’s what everybody does. Can we do it better? Yeah. Could we run back on defense? Yeah. Could we not turn the ball over? Yeah. Can we pay attention to your man? Yes. Can we not get back-doored? Yes. Everything in that room is fixable. And they know that. We’re getting better at it. We do have some physical stuff. We’re not quite the fastest team in the league and we’re not this and that. There are some things where we’ll have some weaknesses. But yeah, we can get better.”

Lakers forward Pau Gasol argued that he often has to cover guards to leave his own man open. Case in point, Bosh scored 31 points easily. Gasol suggested the team could improve its issues by communicating better on defense.

D’Antoni sounded pretty defensive on that defensive criticism.

“That’s not where we’re getting beat,” D’Antoni said. “What they have to understand is we pointed out today. There’s five times we don’t run back. There’s 10 points. There’s five times we get backdoor. There’s 10 points.”

“Where teams are good is they have a consistnet energy play hard and stay within the scheme and thety get better that way and not look for an out. When they start looking for outs, we have problems.”

The Lakers have plenty considering they rank 29th in the NBA out of 30 teams, allowing 105.8 points per game. Why hasn’t anything changed?

“It’s, ‘Oh I just made a mistake,’ ” D’Antoni said. “It’s a little bit of our youth coming in. It’s a little bit of just, you get into an ‘NBA trot’ and we are not good enough to play [like that].”

D’Antoni then reverted back to the Lakers’ opponent.

“Miami can do that. They can have plays where, ‘Oh, golly, you’re right, my fault,'” D’Antoni said. “Our margin to win is very limited because of the injuries and stuff, so we have to play at a high level of intelligent basketball all the game. And we have to be engaged all the time. If we’re not, we come up short.”

ORLANDO — After expressing optimism Lakers forward Xavier Henry could return within the next week, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni suddenly sounded pessimistic.

“It’s another 10-14 days probably,” D’Antoni said.

Henry sounded surprised when reporters informed him of the timetable. After checking with the Lakers’ training staff, Henry predicted the bone bruise in his right knee will “be all right within the next week or so.”

However the timetable pans out, Henry is at least penciled out for the Lakers’ slew up of games against Orlando (tonight), New York (Sunday), Indiana (Tuesday) and Charlotte (Friday). Henry also said he is scheduled to receive an MRI on Monday on his right knee, which has also suffered an abnormality in his meniscus. Henry has missed the past 12 games, but had made some progress this week in participating in weight-bearing exercises that involved running, cutting and shooting.

Henry had also played in a full set of on-court basketball drills including games of three-on-three on Jan. 12, but he felt soreness in his right knee and scaled back his workload.

“I don’t like it’s been this long, but I can’t help how my body reacts and recovers,” Henry said. “It’s an injury that sucks to have. Sometimes you start feeling better in the next day and then you come in and you’re as stiff as ever. It’s been feeling great for the past week or so and I’ve been out there on the court, running, jumping, shooting, cutting. I’m trying to keep moving forward as fast as I can.”

Continue reading “Xavier Henry’s return pushed back” »

Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) shoots for three points over Los Angeles Lakers forward Wesley Johnson (11) during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014. The Heat won 109-102. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

MIAMI — Six seconds ticked off the clock, and that was all the time that was needed to show a few disturbing trends.

The Lakers’ lack of foot speed. The Lakers’ lack of talent. The Lakers’ hopelessness. Their opponent’s dominating power.

LeBron James grabbed a rebound off Ryan Kelly’s missed 3-point attempt. No one on the Lakers showed enough floor spacing and quickness to become settled on defense. James then outran all of them and threw down a one-handed dunk that shook the Lakers’ core.

Fast forward one quarter, later, and the Lakers suddenly cut the Heat’s 16-point lead into a four-point deficit with less than three minutes remaining. Then, Lakers guard Jodie Meeks provided the right amount of suffocating defense needed to stifle James, swarming him with very little space to operate along the perimeter.

No matter. James still dropped a 25-foot three-point jumper that sucked the air out of the room and ultimately led to the Lakers’ 109-102 loss Thursday to the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena.

“I played pretty good defense, and he hit a tough shot,” Meeks said. “That is why he is LeBron. Really nothing you can do. Just play hard and hope he misses sometimes.”

Through Meeks’ suffocating perimeter defense and the Lakers’ resignation on his deadline fast-break dunk, the result still remained the same. James bulldozed his way toward 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting, and the Lakers (16-27) were left with another game where their defense couldn’t carry the day. With the Lakers dropping eight of their 11 games this month, the Lakers have conceded an average of 113 points.

“We’re familiar with the schemes and everybody is playing hard,” Meeks said. “But we have a lot of guys injured and we’re not used to playing with one another. We’re getting used to it now so we’re playing better. We need everybody on the court. It’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Unfortunately, the Lakers don’t have that luxury.

They sit in 13th place in the Western Conference. Bryant and Steve Nash will be reevaluated next week for their respective left knee and back injuries, but they’re unlikely to improve the team’s defensive significantly. Tough defenders, such as Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar, remain weeks away from returning from their respective right elbow and left hamstring injuries. Will all the Lakers’ fortunes suddenly change with Xavier Henry likely to play sometime next week after healing a bone bruise in his left knee? Meanwhile, the Lakers haven’t found an elite defender or a dependable rim protecter since losing two former NBA Defensive Players of the Year this offseason in Dwight Howard and Metta World Peace.

“We’re hustling and we don’t have great defensive individuals,” Lakers forward Pau Gasol said. “So we have t cover for each other and communicate. We have to be better communicating and getting each other going and energizing each other.”

The Lakers hardly showed that against Miami, who bullied its way in the paint (52 points), on the glass (outrebounding the Lakers (48-35) and from three-point range (eight of 20). The Lakers have tried minimizing such issues by forcing mid-range jumpers. But Chris Bosh exposed that strategy by scoring 31 points on 15-22 shooting amid a flurry of them.

“I asked Bosh, I said, ‘Did you miss tonight?'” Lakers forward Nick Young recalled. “He said, ‘Man, I’m done having one of them nights.’ That’s one of them games every player wants.”

The Lakers are capable of having such offensive nights, too.

Gasol’s 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting capped off an effective month where he entered the game averaging 22 points on 53 percent shooting and 12.4 rebounds in the previous five games. Though Young’s 19-point performance on 8-of-20 clip entailed a 4 of 12 mark through three quarters, he had averaged 30 points in the previous two contests.

“Our offense we’ll find a way to score,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It’s not numbers. It’s about defense and being tougher and getting into people and controlling everything and getting back. I don’t look at the numbers. I just do it individually. Our problem is defense.”

So how do the Lakers fix it?

{We need to scramble and communicate and hold each other accountable,” Gasol said. “If we do execute the right way and communicate and know where we’re at, yeah we’ll give up some jumpers. But that’s the most we give up. Sometimes we give too many point points, too many easy ones and too many uncontested shots. That’s what we can’t afford. If it happens too often, we’re in trouble.”

There’s only problem: the Lakers are already at that position without any clear sign it will stop.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com

MIAMI — The legions of Kobe Bryant fans may marvel at his every move, dissect his every tweet and track every second of his recovery from a fractured left knee.

But they won’t listen to Bryant’s plea that they shouldn’t vote for him in this year’s NBA All-Star game. The NBA announced that Bryant remained the leading vote getter among the Western Conference’s backcourt, penciling him to start in what would make his 16th All-Star appearance Feb. 16 in New Orleans. But after averaging only 13.8 points on 42.5 percent shooting, 6.3 assists and 5.7 turnovers through six games, Bryant insisted he will stay out of the game.

“With all due respect to the fans that voted me in, I appreciate that and they know how much I appreciate that, but you have to do the right thing,” Bryant said. “My fans know you have to reward these young guys for the work they’ve been doing.”

Bryant skipped the 2010 NBA All-Star game because of a sprained left ankle. He played only two minutes and 52 seconds in the 2008 All-Star game because of a torn ligament in his right pinkie finger. But Bryant also suggested the NBA may force him to suit up anyway.

“The rule is you have to go in there and play or you miss the next two games,” Bryant said. “It means somebody will have to lose a spot unfortunately. The backups will be playing a lot. I’ll do my two minutes and sit down.”
Continue reading “Kobe Bryants plans to sit out in All-Star game despite being named a starter” »

In a move that stuck to his Zen teachings, Phil Jackson asked Michael Jordan to have a talk with Kobe Bryant.

Both of those players remained dominant scorers of that era, but Jackson believed Jordan could instill some sense toward a young Bryant nearly a decage ago on how to maintain his scoring aggressiveness without disrupting team play. But before that conversation could ever take place, Bryant offered this challenge.

“I could kick your [butt] one-on-one,” Jackson recalled in a recent interview with Fox Sports 1.

Too bad the famed coach disagrees.

“It’s got to be MJ,” Jackson said. “He’s got that hand, or glove, when a guy can pick the ball up with one hand and dribble the ball like Michael can do and take the ball to the basket. It’s very difficult [to defend].

It’s hardly surprising Jackson would side with Jordan over Bryant. In his latest memoir titled “Eleven Rings” co-written by Hugh Delehanty, Jackson considers Jordan superior over Bryant, and the reasons went beyond the championship discrepancy. Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls (1991-93, 1996-98), while Bryant won five titles with the Lakers (2000-2002, 2009-2010). Jackson considered Jordan a better defender, a more accurate shooter and more able to get more out of his teammates.

“Michael was more likely to break through his attackers with his power and strength, while Kobe often tries to finesse his way through mass pileups, Jackson wrote. “Michael was stronger, with bigger shoulders and a sturdier frame. He also had large hands that allowed him to control the ball better and make subtle fakes. Kobe is more flexible – hence, his favorite nickname, “Black Mamba.’”

There was one exception where Bryant had the edge.

Jackson praised Bryant for treating his body “like a finely tuned European sports car,” while saying Jordan was “less regimented” and noted his joy for cigars and wine.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com

MIAMI — Although no official timetable has been provided, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni held out hope that Lakers forward Xavier Henry could heal the bone bruise in his right knee in time either when the Lakers visit the New York Knicks on Sunday or when the Lakers play at home against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday.

“Maybe. I’m being positive. I don’t know,” D’Antoni said after shootaround in preparation for the Lakers’ game tonight against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena. “He said he feels better.”

On the way out of arena, Henry provided a similar diagnosis. He also said he increased his workload on Thursday that entailed running, cutting and light shooting after performing similar drills during Wednesday’s practice.

Henry played in a full set of on-court basketball drills including games of three-on-three on Jan. 12, but he felt soreness in his right knee and scaled back his workload. He has also dealt with an abnormality surrounding the lateral meniscus in his right knee. Henry, who has missed the past 11 games, has become a pleasant surprise morphing from a training camp invitee to a dependable wing player. He has averaged 10.4 points and would resume his role as the team’s backup point guard whenever he returns.

Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com

Phil Jackson sat down for an 23-minute interview with Fox Sports Live, and so you know that means he talked about everything and anything about the Lakers.

How about when Kobe Bryant returns from fractured left knee?

“If it’s somewhere in the middle of February or March, I think he’ll want to come back and get to that level again,” Jackson said. “The only way you get to that level is playing against [NBA talent]. It doesn’t happen on the playground or in the summer.” I think that he’s going to be able to perform at a high level. People are going to be surprised.”

Or the challenges Bryant will face upon his return?

“I think post-up game and screen roll is going to have to become a major part of his game. I don’t think he’s going to be able to just break [players] down [off the dribble],” Jackson said. “Defense becomes the biggest problem as you get old.”

“If it’s somewhere in the middle of February or March, I think he’ll want to come back and get to that level again,” Jackson said. “The only way you get to that level is playing against [NBA talent]. It doesn’t happen on the playground or in the summer.”

Or if Jackson will patrol the sidelines one more time and build on his 11 NBA championships?

“I’m not going to coach again,” Jackson said. “I’ve done my coaching and I think I can put that aside.”

Instead, Jackson preferred he’d like to help out the Lakers within their front office. But that apparently won’t work with vice president of player personnel Jim Buss running the show.

“They have a hierarchy. They have an administration,” he said. “They’re trying to work through some things. They made a decision to go in a different style of ball.”

Jackson didn’t question too much on being passed up for the vacant head-coaching job last year that went to Mike D’Antoni. Instead, Jackson admired Lakers late owner Jerry Buss for his decisiveness, including being proactive in drafting Magic Johnson in 1979, which led to the Showtime Era.

How about Buss’ son?

“I think Jim is kind of feeling his way. He doesn’t really know all of the ramifications of basketball,” Jackson said. “I think one of the things that Dr. Buss did, was he left a lot of basketball decisions to basketball people and then he would make the final [call].”

One of those calls Jackson disagreed happened after retiring in 2011. The Lakers hired Mike Brown over Jackson’s lead assistant Brian Shaw. Brown led the Lakers to the 2012 Western Conference semifinals against Oklahoma City, but he was fired five games into last season. Shaw landed his first head coaching gig this season with the Denver Nuggets.

“They should have given him the opportunity to have that job, but that’s not my decision,” Jackson said. “That’s where Jimmy Buss wanted to make that decision. I don’t know where [General Manager] Mitch [Kupchak] was behind all of that, because Mitch kind of sits behind that decision making.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com

MIAMI — Kobe Bryant recently joked he’ll sit out the 2016 Olympics, teasing that he’ll just watch as teammate Pau Gasol “win another silver” medal for his native Spain.

But that possibility might not happen.

Gasol told this newspaper he remains undecided whether he will play in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janiero, aware that he will then be 36 and saddled with plenty of basketball mileage.

“That’s the main thing. Can I stay healthy and can I play and continue to excel?” Gasol said. “Everything takes its toll. You continue to add miles and then there’s a point where that’s as far as you get.”

Gasol said he will still play in the 2014 World Cup of Basketball in Spain, continuing a strong lineage with his Spanish national team where he has collected a combined three gold medals (2006 FIBA World Peace Championship, 2009 and 2011 FIBA European Championship) and three silver medals (2007 FIBA European Championships, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics).

Team USA announced a roster that includes a 28-player pool headlined by veterans LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony — none of whom are expected to compete at the 2014 World Cup of Basketball in Spain. The newcomers included LaMarcus Aldridge, Bradley Beal, DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Drummond, Kenneth Faried, Paul George, Blake Griffin, Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Korver, David Lee,

Gasol will start tonight against the Miami Heat after completing all of shootaround a day after missing practice because of an open wound in the moderate strain in his left big toe. Gasol has nursed the injury for the past nine days, but has averaged 22 points on 53 percent shooting and 12.4 rebounds in the last five games.

“He’s being more aggressive and feeling better, probably physically,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. “The team having a point guard [in Kendall Marshall] gets us settled. We can have a better flow.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com