It was a nightmare season for the Los Angeles Lakers.
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The Lakers lost center Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets in free agency, then lost several players including their future Hall-of-Fame back court of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash to injuries. The Lakers finished 27-55, 22 games out of a playoff spot.
With former Lakers’ guard Byron Scott taking over as head coach, he wants the Lakers to be a tougher team.
“They’re tough,” Scott said of his camps via Yannis Koutroupis of Hoops Rumors. “A lot of running. A lot of running and a lot of defensive drills. I always believe that if teams are going to beat us, they’re going to beat us because they’re better that night and not because they’re in better shape, not because they’re tougher. They’re going to beat us that night because they’re better that night than we are. So I pride myself on making sure we’re one of the best conditioned teams in the league, and that we’re going to execute on both ends of the floor. And to do that you have to have discipline and dedication, and that’s what we plan on doing.”
Although he doesn’t have a great record and has had his share of struggles, Scott has had success in the postseason in the past despite a rather poor regular season record. Scott has coached the New Jersey Nets (Brooklyn), New Orleans Hornets (Pelicans) and Cleveland Cavaliers. He has a career regular season record of 416-521 and is 33-24 in the postseason.
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