The Los Angeles Lakers suffered another embarrassing loss on Thursday night, and this one was even worse than some of the others because it came at the hands of the crosstown rival Clippers. Afterward, Lakers star Kobe Bryant expressed his displeasure on several matters to Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins:
Kobe Bryant doesn’t want Lakers joking around after blowout loss
Kobe Bryant was not in a good mood following the Lakers’ ugly loss to the Clippers on Thursday, and he expressed his displeasure at some teammates “laughing and joking around” after the game.
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“I’m not happy right now and hopefully my teammates feel the same way,” Bryant said. “You have to reflect on how important this is to you and what it means to you.”
Without calling anyone out, he added: “After we lose by 20 or 30 points, we definitely can’t be laughing and joking around.”
While Bryant did not mention anybody by name, the inference could certainly be made that he was calling out Dwight Howard. Howard has always been a guy that often does not take things seriously, and he appeared to be his usual happy-go-lucky self in garbage time against the Clippers. We all know how competitive Bryant is, so that sort of stuff simply does not fly when the team is getting trounced, especially by a rival
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There were plenty of questions prior to the season whether the Kobe/Dwight relationship would work. As the season has gone downhill, the relationship seems to be getting more and more icy. Just last week, Bryant called out Howard for not playing though an injured shoulder, although he later denied doing so.
If pressed on these latest quotes, Bryant is sure to once again deny that he was referring to Howard, but it’s pretty clear that the two of them are not getting along well. If things do not get fixed in the near future, the Lakers’ season will officially be kaput.
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