Dark clouds momentarily parted for Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell in New Orleans, not that anyone noticed

D’Angelo Russell scored 32 points and nobody noticed.

This is what happens when you’re a bystander for the Kobe Bryant goodbye tour on a team with a 16-63 record.

Russell has endured a rough couple of weeks, cast into the center of a mainstream saga when his secretly recorded video of teammate Nick Young was leaked to a celebrity gossip site.

Russell was called a snitch, universally condemned for surreptitiously asking Young about women who were not his fiancée, rapper Iggy Azalea.

The rookie had to offer numerous apologies, including one to Young, and played badly on the court, shooting 28.4% in his previous five games.

He showed some scoring ability Friday against an undermanned New Orleans team, making nine of 16 shots and continually getting to the free-throw line in a 110-102 Lakers loss that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score.

Bryant shrugged off Russell’s outburst. The Lakers trailed by as many as 23 in the third quarter.

“You really can’t judge anything with these type of games. You really can’t,” Bryant said.

Russell had a nice eight-game run starting in late February, averaging 23.3 points and 4.8 assists. Then he broke the 20-point barrier only once in a 12-game span before Friday.

Coach Byron Scott wasn’t happy with Russell or backcourt mate Jordan Clarkson. They combined for only two assists and, of greater importance to Scott, were lousy on defense. Journeyman Toney Douglas had 20 points and four assists for New Orleans.

“We’ve talked about it from day one, Sept. 28,” Scott said. “We’ve talked about defense and guarding every single night. We’ve talked about teams that win championships, you can’t look at the offensive end. Most teams that win championships are great on the defensive end first. And we’ve got to get to that.”

Sorry, Kobe
The Lakers got booted from ESPN to ESPN2 for the final game of Bryant’s career Wednesday against Utah so that ESPN can show Golden State’s pursuit of the NBA’s best-ever regular-season record.

The league announced the change within minutes of the Warriors’ come-from-behind victory Saturday against Memphis.

The Warriors (71-9) need to win Sunday at San Antonio and Wednesday at home against Memphis to break Chicago’s 72-10 mark set in 1995-96.

Bryant’s last game will also be televised by TWC SportsNet.

Fed up

Backup New Orleans center Alexis Ajinca had his reasons for ripping through the Lakers with career highs in points (28) and rebounds (15).

Mainly, he didn’t like the massive turnout of Lakers supporters at the Pelicans’ arena.

“It’s a home game and seeing the whole stadium is in gold and purple is kind of annoying so it gets you going,” Ajinca told reporters. “[Bryant] is still a great legend and now he’s leaving the game, but at the end of the day, this is still our home.”

Shaq’s jealous

Shaquille O’Neal has tried over the years to mend a tattered relationship with Bryant.

His latest olive branch wasn’t a compliment as much as genuine envy of Bryant’s farewell tour.

“I’m super jealous. I wanted a Shaq tour, man. I did,” O’Neal said on “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” available Monday on PodcastOne.com. “Like, I never said this, but this is killing me. You know, I had two years [contractually] in Boston. I got hurt my first year, but the second year we were going to plan a whole Shaq tour.”

O’Neal retired after playing only 37 games his first season with the Celtics. He was bothered by a chronically sore Achilles’ tendon.

“I wanted to just go to the [cities], and people see me play my last game. I did,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal, 43, retired after 19 seasons and was recently selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

NEXT UP

AT HOUSTON

When: 12:30 p.m. PDT.

Where: Toyota Center.

On the air: TV: TWC SportsNet, TWC Deportes; Radio: 710, 1330.

Records: Lakers 16-63; Rockets 38-41.

Record vs. Rockets: 0-3.

Update: Houston has lots of star power but not necessarily a playoff spot. The Rockets are ninth in the Western Conference, a game behind Utah, after a surprising loss to Phoenix. Dwight Howard has fallen out of the game plan offensively, averaging only 9.3 points over his last 15 games.

Follow Mike Bresnahan on Twitter: @Mike_Bresnahan