The struggle continues for Kobe Bryant. Despite taking a mandatory day off from practice to get his head right, he picked up right where he left off with his subpar play Tuesday night in the Lakers’ 120-109 loss to the Denver Nuggets to remain winless on the season. Midway through the first quarter, the Mamba decided to pull up for a three, but bricked it badly off the bottom of the backboard. He followed that up almost immediately with an air-ball on another three-point attempt, then added insult to injury by failing to get back on defense on the ensuing change of possession.
Kobe airballs a 3 then decides not to play defense. https://t.co/13ZsyCyC8t
— Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) November 4, 2015
Vino had 11 points in nearly 30 minutes of action, but continued his poor shooting by going 4-of-11 from the field, including 1-of-5 from downtown. Another one of those ugly misses came with less than six minutes left in the game and L.A. trailing Denver 103-97. Kobe got a wide-open look, but chucked up yet another air-ball.
The Lakers as a whole were pretty dreadful from behind-the-arc all night, going 6-of-26 as a team. Jordan Clarkson was one of the few bright spots as he posted a career-high 30 points on a solid 12-of-19 from the floor and a blistering 4-of-6 from distance.
Leading the way for Denver was Kenneth Faried, who was a ridiculously-efficient 10-13 from the field en route to 28 points and 15 rebounds, while Danilo Gallinari and JJ Hickson chipped in 21 and 13 points, respectively.
