Veteran guard/forward Nick Young missed the first 10 games of the season due to a torn ligament in his right thumb. Young suffered the injury while trying to guard Kobe Bryant in a scrimmage at the Los Angeles Lakers practice facility. The injury proved costly with Young having to miss six weeks giving head coach Byron Scott no solid scoring option other than Kobe Bryant.
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Fortunately, in his first two games back from injury, Young was back to form scoring 17 points in consecutive nights off the bench. The Lakers won both games against the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets, but since then, Young has struggled.
On Wednesday, following the loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Young admitted needing to needing to work on a certain part of his game, via Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters:
Young (1/2): "For the most part, I'm new w/ the guys. I know down the stretch we go to Kobe a lot…I just got to learn to work off the ball
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 27, 2014
Young (2/2): "I'm so used to trying to have the ball in my hands sometimes, so I just got to adjust."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 27, 2014
In the loss to the Grizzlies, Young finished with 13 points — the most points of any player off the bench. Unfortunately, it took the sixth man 14 shots to get to that total.
Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 22 points on Wednesday. Young and Bryant combined for 35 points, but went 9-for-29 from the floor.
Bryant and Young will have to find a way to coexist in order to get this team back on track. The two stars played well in Young’s return, but the sixth man will have to figure out how to be a force while Kobe is on the floor.
In four games thus far, Young is averaging 11.3 points per game while shooting a career-high 36.4 percent from the field and 30.0 percent from beyond the arc. Not ideal numbers from arguably the second-best player on the squad.
[divide]Lakers Vs. Grizzlies Post-Game Players Reaction
