ONTARIO — The Lakers will seemingly go through a never-ending process. They will watch film of their previous game. Lakers coach Byron Scott will highlight all the defensive miscues that range from pick-and-roll coverage, transition defense and closing out on the perimeter. The Lakers will discuss the issues, and hope that improved effort and understanding will fix this issue.
But as the Lakers demonstrated in their 116-75 preseason loss Sunday to the Golden State Warriors at Citizens Business Bank Arena, they appear light years away from ever reaching that ideal. Things turned so badly that even Lakers veteran guard Ronnie Price drew a technical foul for throwing his shoe at Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala.
Price may have said facetiously he was “just trying to get it out of bounds.” But he then became pretty honest on why he would throw his shoe after it slipped off during an unsuccessful drive to the basket.
“I was just trying to stop the ball as fast as possible,” Price said. “The shoe was in my hand so I thought that would stop the play.”
Well, consider it mission accomplished.
Officials blew their whistle with 8:50 left in the second quarter to give Price a technical foul.
“He shouldn’t have thrown it. It cost us a technical,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “I don’t even know how it came off. I saw him slipping and the shoe was off and he picks it up. He was trailing on defense so I guess he figured, ‘Let me see if I can hit the ball out of his hands with his shoe.’
The Lakers generally laughed the incident off. Kobe Bryant claimed that he witnessed someone throwing their shoe to block a jump shot from going into the basket. Scott joked that at least Price’s technical only cost the Lakers one point instead of Golden State converting on a two or three-point shot. Price maintained he had done this before and only drew a personal foul, adding it was “probably playing against the Lakers in the past.”
But the incident seem pretty uncharacteristic after Price drew rave reviews all preseason for his defensive hustle and solid playmaking. Price may have a non-guaranteed contract, but his value only increases amid injuries to Steve Nash (back), Jeremy Lin (left ankle) and Jordan Clarkson (left calf muscle).
“I love Ronnie’s toughness,” Scott said. “Defensively he gets after people and plays extremely hard. Offensively, he doesn’t do anything to hurt you. He plays solid basketball so I love the way he played tonight.”
Well, except for throwing a shoe.
RELATED:
Lakers’ Byron Scott reports Steve Nash “didn’t quite feel right”
Lakers’ Ronnie Price throws shoe, draws technical vs. Warriors
Kobe Bryant & Steve Nash in, Jeremy Lin out vs. Golden State
Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com