Lakers Coach Byron Scott to miss two games to attend mother’s funeral

Lakers Coach Byron Scott will miss two games this week to attend funeral services for his mother, Dorothy, who died last week at age 72.

Scott will remain in Southern California while the Lakers play Tuesday at Oklahoma City and Wednesday at Minnesota. Assistant coach Paul Pressey will take Scott’s place on the bench.

Scott became emotional Sunday when asked what he would remember about his mother.

“Her strength, courage. My mom was terrific,” he said before the Lakers defeated Philadelphia, 101-87, at Staples Center. “I don’t want to talk about it any more because you’re going to get me ... let’s leave it at that, all right?”

Scott then politely ended a pregame news conference with reporters and walked into his office at Staples Center, brushing away tears.

A minute earlier, Scott said his mother was proud when he was hired to coach the Lakers last August.

“She was pretty happy about that. She had been telling me for years that it would happen,” he said. “She was a big basketball fan so she was really excited about that.”

Scott will rejoin the Lakers for their game Friday at Toronto. Then they play at Brooklyn and at Philadelphia before returning to Los Angeles.

Meeks remembers

Former Lakers guard Jodie Meeks could never forget the pass he converted from Steve Nash last April because it pushed Nash into third on the NBA’s career assists list.

Now it’ll be remembered for another reason — it was the 10,335th and last of Nash’s career. Nash announced his retirement Saturday.

“It’s a great feeling because he’ll be in the Hall of Fame and let’s be realistic, I’m probably not going to be,” Meeks told the website Basketball Insiders. “Maybe the box score will be, so I’ll be happy to be in there with him.”

Meeks dunked on the play in a 145-130 Lakers loss to Houston at Staples Center.

“A couple plays before that, I had missed one,” Meeks said. “So I made sure to make that one.”