Kobe Needs Lakers “To Just Get A Damn Win” Following Fifth Straight Loss

The Lakers dropped their fifth straight game to open the 2014-15 NBA season, and Kobe Bryant was in full-on God mode, needing 37 shots to drop 39 points in their 112-106 loss to the Suns last night. Asked after the game what the team needed to do to get on track, Bryant didn’t mince words: “Just get a damn win,” he told the Los Angeles Daily News‘ Mark Medina.

Bryant is drinking the local Lakers kool-aid even after dropping so many to start the season. The Lakers are only two losses away from tying the 1957-58 Minneapolis Lakers for the worst start in franchise history, but Mamba stubbornly refuses to let that happen. He believes you can just play through the talent divide between the Lakers and the rest of the NBA to get a Dubya.

“You just got to be determined, man,” Bryant said. “You can’t listen to what everybody says. You can’t listen to the criticism of what’s happened, what other people are saying. You’ve got to be stubborn as a mule, gotta keep chipping away and gotta keep competing and going after it, and this thing will turn around. Just as easily as we lost five in a row, man, we can turn around and win five in a row.”

The Lakers are undermanned and over-matched on the defensive end, so Bryant played a game-high 44 minutes — far exceeding the 35-40 minute restriction coach Byron Scott said he’d play Bryant before the start of the season in order to rest his star’s 36-year-old legs. Bryant, for his part, doesn’t care what we — or any other media outlet — thinks.

“Just being aggressive and playing with a lot of energy,” Bryant said of his mindset in last night’s game. “It’s easy to look at the box score and say 37 shots. But you don’t see how hard I was working to get easy opportunities.

“Whether I can shoulder the load of these minutes consistently, probably not,” he added. “But every now and then it will be necessary.”

Last night was one of those times, it seems. Watch Kobe take 37 shots for 39 points in a closer-than-usual loss for the Lakers:

You can almost feel the blood boiling beneath the surface of Bryant’s placid exterior after the game, and he’s only a few more losses away from going crazy if his teammates don’t match his superhuman competitiveness:

“The most important thing is they understand the relentlessness you have to play with,” Bryant said. “I’ll go out there and leave it on the floor, everything and compete and be relentless and not be fearful of criticism or fearful of not playing well or missing shots. That’s the same way I want the guys I’m playing with.”

Hopefully his teammates answer the bell because we don’t want to be in the locker room if the Lakers keep on losing, even though they don’t really have the personnel to compete in a loaded Western Conference. There will be a lot more games like last night’s shot-fest by Bryant, and that could spell doom for his health, the sanity of the fans, and the sanctity team-first basketball.

We doubt Bryant cares about any of that, though, he just wants to “get a damn win,” and we’re hoping — for his teammates’ sake, and his own peace of mind – it comes sooner rather than later.

(Los Angeles Daily News; first video via Dawk Ins)

What will Kobe do if the Lakers keep losing?

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