Two of Los Angeles' biggest personalities are clashing in Tinseltown.
Not only are the Lakers losers of four of their last six games (all by double digits), but Kobe Bryant and head coach Phil Jackson have turned to the media to whine about their problems and are taking verbal jabs at each other in the process.
After their 104-85 loss to the Grizzlies at home on Sunday, both Bryant and Jackson let out some steam.
"I just felt like we had no energy," Bryant told the Los Angeles Times. "So I tried to generate some of that and just get us started, but we weren't able to carry it through."
In trying to generate some offense, Bryant went on to take 12 of the team's 22 shots in the third quarter. Needless to say, Jackson wasn't happy with Bryant's decision-making and selfishness. Picking up his fifth technical foul in his last six games didn't help, either.
"Kobe had to screw up the game and start energizing the team by going one-on-one," Jackson said. "That takes the rest of the guys out and as a consequence, that didn't bring us back in."
Jackson also believes that a recent day off is partially to blame for their latest loss.
"One of the things about having a day off with this team is that they lose focus," Jackson explained. "They had a day off [Saturday], and I'll learn better from that."
Bryant disagrees.
"We've had days off and blown teams out, so I'm not buying any of that Zen [expletive]," Bryant told Fox Sports. "I think we're looking too far down the road instead of looking just at the game that's right in front of you. You start skipping steps if you look too far down the line."
