The official announcement that the NBA All-Star game was returning to Los Angeles in 2018 came amid jokes about a mayors' dunking contest and comments about the sunny weather. The NBA's seven-year itch led to the game being hosted by Staples Center for the first time since 2011. Staples also had...
The season has been a struggle, but the Lakers' last four games — all losses — ranked among the most difficult to watch. Since an improbable victory over Golden State, slow starts have plagued the Lakers (14-55) and the growth of their young trio — D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson...
Not everything connected with the Lakers is filled with staggering numbers in the loss column and draft lottery percentages. The Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers' Development League affiliate, have won a team-record 14 consecutive home games and are among the best of the NBA's minor league system....
His father towers over him, as do his two older brothers, but Trayce Thompson jokes that this is by design. As a boy, he visualized barreling through an offensive line, not spotting up at the three-point line. In his childhood obsession, he altered his diet because "he wanted to stunt his growth...
News and notes from around the NBA: TRENDING ... NBA adopts "DeAndre Jordan Rule" On Thursday, the NBA and the NBA players union agreed to shorten July's moratorium, reducing the league's dark period by five days. While teams are able to negotiate with free agents as of the first day of July, deals...
The Lakers stumbled around for 21/2 hours Friday, losing to the similarly sad Phoenix Suns and creating a very good question. How on Earth did this team beat Golden State? The Lakers shot 36% against the only other Western Conference team eliminated from playoff contention, and if that's not sad,...
They're an unlikely duo, Jordan Clarkson and D'Angelo Russell. Clarkson is reserved, almost stoic. No "ice in his veins" celebrations. Russell is a jokester off the court and demonstrative on it, displaying off-the-cuff delight when he or a teammate makes a big play. Neither one is a true point...
Kobe Bryant is expected to play tonight against Phoenix, Lakers Coach Byron Scott said after the team's morning shoot-around. Bryant sat out Tuesday's game against Sacramento, leaving him with 14 to go before he retires. "I talked to him a little bit this morning. He says he feels a lot better,"...
It's going to be a big game, something the Lakers' haven't been able to say much this season. Really big, in fact. NBA lottery percentages will be the headline Friday when the Lakers play the Phoenix Suns, and that's how far the franchise has dropped in recent years. Lakers games in March used...
The Lakers hit the wall (again). Is it because their young players did too? It's a common theme around this time, NBA rookies accustomed to playing 30-something college games struggle because they play more than double that as a pro. Julius Randle has missed 13 of his last 20 shots, D'Angelo Russell...
As Kobe Bryant plays out his 20th and final season with the Lakers, The Times has reached out to players, coaches and broadcasters for recollections about his career. Caron Butler, a 13-year-pro, two-time All-Star and NBA champion, played one season with the Lakers and Bryant, in 2004-05. This...
The boo was a long, mournful and solitary one with 6:45 left in the first quarter. It symbolized pretty much everything about the Lakers right now. Darren Collison had just stolen the ball for the Sacramento Kings and dunked easily with a clear path ahead of him Tuesday at Staples Center. There...
After all the losing, all the anguish of a season gone asunder long ago, what would the Lakers do if the unthinkable happened? What if they lost their first-round draft pick? It's top-three protected, meaning it goes away because of the Steve Nash trade if they fall below third at the May 17 lottery....
As Kobe Bryant plays out his 20th and final season with the Lakers, The Times has reached out to players, coaches and broadcasters to share their recollections about his career. Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony forged their friendship as teammates in the Olympics and the New York Knicks forward...
Kobe Bryant was expected to skip Tuesday's game against Sacramento, according to Lakers forward Metta World Peace, who said he was told he would take Bryant's spot in the lineup. Bryant has been trying to save his body for the April 13 season finale, and has made a habit of sitting out games at...
It's funny. The Lakers' victory over Golden State was more than a week old and still being discussed in hushed tones. Or not-so-hushed tones by Coach Byron Scott. He's using it as a rallying cry to end the Lakers' two-game losing streak, including a rough last-second loss Sunday to New York. "That's...
As Kobe Bryant plays out his 20th and final season with the Lakers, The Times has reached out to players, coaches and broadcasters for recollections about his career. Kyrie Irving was a young man whose confidence knew no bounds. After winning the 2012 NBA rookie of the year award, the 20-year-old...
D'Angelo Russell had called it a statement game, an important time to show he deserved to be the NBA draft's second pick last June. Then a question mark was thrown into his sentence — New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis sat out Sunday's game against the Lakers because of a stomach illness....
Phil Jackson received a warm ovation at the end of the first quarter at Staples Center. Kurt Rambis was also there, along with Sasha Vujacic, all representing the New York Knicks one way or another. Times change. Coaches and players leave the Lakers. Once-mighty franchises drop precipitously and...
Even with the benefit of hindsight, Karl-Anthony Towns still would be the first player selected from the 2015 NBA draft class, based on his impressive body of work this season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. But as the 2015-16 regular season nears its close, let's indulge in a little revisionist...
The talk was everywhere a few months ago: Did the Lakers draft the wrong player? It was too early to throw around the "bust" label but it didn't look great when D'Angelo Russell lost his starting job 20 games into the season. It also didn't help that the two players drafted directly below him were...
If nothing else this season, Kobe Bryant's humor has been unwavering since he declared his intent to retire. Where there used to be a raging fire, there's a comfortable seat in front of a perfectly stoked hearth. Bryant used to spar with Lakers opponents, trash-talking them on the court and rarely...
There were just enough moments for Lakers followers to savor — plenty of wham-bam plays and a solid Kobe Bryant effort in the final countdown of his career. If only there was some defense. It's hard to win when you give up 95 points in the first three quarters, a wall the Lakers smacked into as...
D'Angelo Russell keeps growing a little here and a little there, enough to catch the attention of Lakers Coach Byron Scott. It hasn't merely been his surge on offense. There's been other progress the last few weeks. Scott criticized Russell last month for messing around too much at practice. It...
As Kobe Bryant plays out his 20th and final season with the Lakers, The Times has reached out to players, coaches and broadcasters for recollections about his career. When recalling memories of Kobe Bryant, most players around the NBA describe a game when Bryant hit a game-winning shot or scored...
Fans at Staples Center might be getting kind of used to seeing Kobe Bryant hanging out in street clothes. Since announcing his impending retirement back in November, the Lakers superstar has sat out 10 of the team's 25 home games. It was more of the same Wednesday night at Staples -- well, there...
The Lakers wonder if Kevin Durant has been watching. They hope Hassan Whiteside has taken notice. DeMar DeRozan too. Few teams will have the salary cap space of the Lakers when free agency begins June 30, and you have to wonder who has seen their late little imprint on the 2015-16 season. Beat...
Break up the Lakers. That's two in a row. These are unexpectedly fun days for them, with no illusion of a championship parade but snippets of hope for the future. D'Angelo Russell continued to delight fans at Staples Center. Julius Randle added scoring to his typically productive board work. Jordan...
Kobe Bryant and longtime Lakers trainer Gary Vitti will retire next month. Metta World Peace isn't ready to join them. "I still want to get in the playoffs again. I want to do a couple more years," the Lakers forward said Tuesday. "This year I didn't play much so I kind of saved myself. I'm going...
Sorry, Kobe. You're not the only basketball player with a camera crew following you. A touch of Hollywood has found its way to the southeastern banks of the Mississippi River, where video cameras and boom microphones traipse after Louisiana State's 19-year-old basketball prodigy Ben Simmons. Unlike...
As surprising as it was to watch the Golden State Warriors get blown out by the last-place Lakers, there is a simple explanation for what happened Sunday at Staples Center. The mystery is that it isn't happening more frequently.Teams dependent on long-range shooting are bound to play such games....
Meet Jordan Clarkson, the forgotten Laker. He wears jersey No. 6. He's from San Antonio. This is his second year in the NBA. It's easy to overlook him because he falls so deep in the attention-getting pecking order of the Lakers. This is somewhat bizarre because he's their best player. The Kobe...
Here are five takeaways from the Lakers' stunning 112-95 victory over the NBA's best team, the Golden State Warriors, on Sunday: 1. The Lakers young backcourt of D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson held their own against the NBA’s best guard duo, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson,...
You know you were waiting for it to happen. Waiting for the Lakers to blow their surprisingly big lead. Waiting for the team with the second-worst record in the NBA to come back to Earth. Waiting for the Golden State Warriors to get serious and grind up the Lakers, for Stephen Curry and his defending-champion...
Collecting rebounds has been Julius Randle's constant this season for the Lakers. And in many ways, Randle has made it a simple chore: See the ball. Go get the ball. He went and got 14 rebounds against Golden State on Sunday to go along with 12 points, his 27th double-double of the season. "I have...
The Los Angeles Lakers upset the Golden State Warriors, 112-95, Sunday afternoon at Staples Center. There really is no other way to put it. After all, the Lakers have the second-worst record (13-51) in the NBA and the defending NBA champion Warriors have the best record (55-6) in the league. The...
Both Kobe Bryant (sore right shoulder) and Jordan Clarkson (strained tendon in left knee) will play today when the Lakers host defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors at Staples Center. Bryant had taken six days off to rest his shoulder when he initially felt the soreness. He played at Denver...
All this fuss over a child. Hang around D'Angelo Russell for five minutes and realize that the last five months of heated discourse and polarizing debate about the Lakers' draft king are really sort of silly. He's a skinny kid not yet even old enough to legally drink, and already he can be called...
Now the Lakers are having to come to grips with an increasing number of injuries on top of a season that has them careening toward the worst record in franchise history. It was bad enough for Lakers Coach Byron Scott to say after practice Saturday that Jordan Clarkson (strained tendon in left knee)...
Jordan Clarkson (strained tendon in left knee) and Kobe Bryant (sore right shoulder) both remain questionable for the Lakers' game Sunday against the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors at Staples Center. Clarkson, who didn’t play Friday against Atlanta, practiced Saturday and told Lakers...