The Lakers lost their franchise record-tying 10th straight game Sunday night and listened to perhaps the loudest boos of a nine-win season during the Staples Center setback against the Hornets. But Kobe Bryant says the team hasn't circled Tuesday's home game against the Timberwolves.
Because, really, what would be the point?
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"Honestly, it doesn't really matter," Bryant said (via ESPN.com) of trying to avoid a team-record losing streak it now shares with the 1993-94 Lakers. "What, it makes a s--- season less s---?"
Instead, the Lakers (9-41), assured of at best a .500 record — and that would take 32-game winning streak starting Tuesday — are trying to plumb the depths of what will be their third consecutive losing season, the first time that's happened since the team's arrival in Los Angeles before the 1960-61 season.
"The Navy SEALs have a way of taking guys to the bottom of the pool," said Bryant, who scored 23 points in Sunday's loss. "Sometimes you've got to go to the bottom of the pool, man, and figure it out. We're almost there. Gasping for air."
Bryant, who is retiring after 20 NBA seasons with the Lakers, says he's trying to teach the team's younger players not to give in to losing.
"You've got to keep fighting. You've got to keep playing. You've got to keep competing. You can't capitulate to it," Bryan said. "You keep going hard every single time and sometimes you have seasons like this and it's tough. This is a very competitive league. Every night you're facing top-notch competition. It's tough."
The one person Bryant does sympathize with? Coach Byron Scott.
"I've been his friend, his younger brother and his psychiatrist at times," Bryant said. "It's tough. Byron is as competitive as you can get, man. It's tough."
