On Thursday, in a game no one watched because TNT thankfully swapped it out of a primetime spot, the Los Angeles Lakers fell at home to the New York Knicks, 101-94. The win was just the Knicks' 13th of the year. The Lakers now stand at 17-47, the fourth worst record in the league.
Needless to say, Lakers coach Byron Scott was not happy afterwards. No one ever is after losing to the Knicks.
"This got away before the game even started," he said during his postgame press conference (you can see video of Scott speaking over at Lakers Nation). "Our mindset was nowhere near where it should have been, let's put it that way. And I expressed that to them at halftime and at end of the game."
Scott wasn't done there. He continued to rip his team for, well, seemingly everything.
"First of all, I think we were just selfish as a basketball team tonight. I think a lot of our guys came in looking at New York thinking this was going to be an easy win so I'm going to get my points, which showed in our shooting percentage, the way we shot the ball, the way we moved the ball or lack of moving the ball," he said. "How many times did we come down and no pass and shot or one pass and shot? You know, it was just one of those games where I think our guys, from a mental standpoint, was just thinking this is going to be an easy win, didn't give them respect and we got what we deserved."
Scott was then asked about point guard Jordan Clarkson, who scored just 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting in 28 minutes of playing time. Clarkson is a 22-year-old rookie averaging 15 points, four assists and four rebounds over his last 10 games, better than anyone could have expected considering that he was a second-round pick.
"Tonight I thought JC went backwards a little bit, as far as he was trying to force things too much, didn't do a good job of running the show, they sped him up and he just tried to do too many things," Scott said. "It's just one of those things, he's a young player, you know, and I think he probably fell into that trap as well of coming out and playing well and thinking about the offensive end of the floor more than the defensive end."
And then there was this confusing gem:
How does Byron deal w/ losses? "Go home and beat the dog." Then he immediately backtracked: "I don't even have a dog."
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) March 13, 2015
This is not the first time that Scott has called out his team this season. What follows is an incomplete list of all the different times that Byron Scott has said that his team and players stink at basketball.
Nov. 12
Byron Scott: "That's been the worst defense I've seen."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 13, 2014
Asked if there is any way the Lakers defense can be fixed, Byron Scott said, "I don't know yet."
— Bill Oram (@billoram) November 13, 2014
Nov. 21
Byron Scott on defense: "I just saw dumb plays. It wasn’t the effort. It's just stupid decisions."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 22, 2014
Nov. 29
Byron Scott nearly dropped F bomb post-game. Shared how he told team gameplan in shootaround, before game & halftime. Message not heard
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 29, 2014
Jan. 8
Byron repeatedly called his team soft
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) January 8, 2015
Byron Scott also said Lakers need to "man up."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) January 8, 2015
Jan. 16
Byron on if Lin is tough: "You are who you are. I’m not saying he’s soft or anything like that. But Ronnie Price is a tough kid, period."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) January 17, 2015
Jan. 20
Byron Scott on Lakers 23 turnovers: ""We just didn’t play with an understanding of how valuable that orange thing is."
— Bill Oram (@billoram) January 20, 2015
Jan. 26
Byron Scott on Nick Young: "I just felt with his body language that he didn’t want to play tonight, so I chose not to play him."
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) January 26, 2015
★★★
SB Nation presents: Nick Young on how he went from wannabe to Swaggy P