Byron Scott Comments on Lakers' Struggles in Kobe Bryant's Final Games

The Los Angeles Lakers are limping to the finish to close the 2015-16 NBA regular season, which doesn't sit well with head coach Byron Scott given the fact it has coincided with Kobe Bryant's last season.

Following the Lakers' 103-81 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, Scott lamented his team's effort, according to ESPN.com's Baxter Holmes:

"

It bothers me that his last five, six, seven, eight games are going to be with the way we're playing as a team. That bothers me, because you're talking about a champion. That bothers me, because he is a champion. And I hate to see him go out this way. Unfortunately this is the way it's going to be.

It bothers the hell out of me that somebody who's given 20 years to this league and has played through broken fingers, come back from the Achilles, come back from the shoulder surgery, and he still goes out there and gives it everything he has, that bothers me.

"

L.A. sits last in the Western Conference at 16-61, having lost six of its past seven games.

Bryant leads the team with 16.8 points per game in 61 contests, but the 37-year-old has been slowed by nagging injuries over the course of the grinding NBA season.

The future Hall of Famer continues to give it his all despite that, and he is hopeful the Lakers' younger players will learn to do the same in time, per Holmes:

"

We try to sit there and try to figure out, 'When did we start doing that?' At what age we started doing that. We try to figure out what that trigger was for us. Metta [World Peace], as far as he could remember, he was that way. As far as I can remember, I was that way. Watching Metta play in high school, he was that way.

I don't know. It's hard to comprehend or understand where that comes from. But at the same time, we've seen players not have that at the beginning and then develop that. It's just a matter of them developing it at this point.

"

Five games remain in the 2015-16 season for the Lakers and in Bryant's illustrious career. Jordan Clarkson (23), D'Angelo Russell (20), Julius Randle (21) and Larry Nance Jr. (23) are the future, and they can only stand to benefit from playing alongside a five-time NBA champion and seeing how he prepares on a day-to-day basis.

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