Lakers: Kobe: "not worried here"

[irishock]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Los Angeles Lakers' 122-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday dropped them to 0-3 since Kobe Bryant's return from his Achilles tear, but the slow start hasn't fazed Bryant one bit."I'm not worried about it, to be honest with you," Bryant said. "We've seen worse. We forget kind of what we had to go through last year. I'm not really too concerned about it. I think our heart is in the right place. I think I saw a lot of positive things tonight; we just got to put it together for longer stretches. We'll be fine."
The losing streak dropped L.A. to 10-12, or 13th in the 15-team Western Conference. Bryant was justified in his statement about last season, however, remembering how the Lakers fell to 17-25 at one point in January before rallying to finish 28-12 and make the playoffs.
More on the Lakers

For more news, notes and analysis of the Lakers, check out the Lakers Index. Blog


Bryant -- who is averaging 11 points, 6.7 assists, 3.7 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 6 turnovers in 26.7 minutes per game since his return while shooting 38.5 percent from the field overall (including an 0-for-5 mark on 3-pointers) -- was similarly optimistic about the direction his own game is going.
"I'm moving a lot better," Bryant said after finishing with 4 points, 13 assists, 2 steals and 7 turnovers in 23 minutes against the Thunder. "It will get to a point soon where I'll be able to play a little bit more and be out there on the court maybe 30, 35 minutes or something like that. It's not ready for that yet, but it will get there."
Bryant was just 2-for-6 from the field Friday but promised he would be looking to score more in the future.
"Once I start playing a little bit more, that number is going to go up," Bryant said. "The points will go up. I'm not too concerned about that. I think the most important thing is our flow and how we play and how we manage the game. My points, I can always put the ball in the hole."
With the Lakers playing without Steve Blake (elbow), Jordan Farmar (hamstring) and Steve Nash (nerve root irritation) for at least the next three games to finish out their four-game trip, the team will continue to rely on Bryant to distribute the ball and look to score.
"He's got to do both and he knows that," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He'll feel the game and he'll get better every game. I think he's gotten better every game. There was some really good stuff that he did."
Bryant said the intrigue in him, the fourth-leading scorer in NBA history, taking on point guard duties is misplaced.
"You guys get wrapped up in this whole point guard thing," Bryant said. "I was point guard for three straight championships. So, it's not a big deal to me. But, timing, when to roll the big guy out, when to find him, when to slip it in those areas, it's getting there. It's getting there. We'll be fine."
D'Antoni said he expects Bryant to be a playmaker and sort out the scoring and passing load on a game-by-game basis.
"I don't think you can pre-program it," D'Antoni said. "I think he has to read the game. If he takes 20 [shots], if he takes three, he's got to make plays and he'll do that. I think he feels like sometimes he can't jump over guys, his legs and stuff, but each game goes by, he'll get more comfortable physically and we'll do a better job around him. He's fine. He's the least of our worries right now."
Bryant had a chance to test his legs in the first quarter, stripping Jeremy Lamb for a steal at center court and streaking down toward an uncontested hoop, but he chose to go for a layup rather than a dunk.
How far down the court did he decide against dunking it?
"Oh, as soon as I stole it," Bryant said with a smirk. "I mean, for what? It's early in the game. I'm still not even loose. I'm not [dunking]. I'll just take the two points."
Bryant is taking the same cautious approach when it comes to ramping up his playing time as he tries to balance the urge to help his team with the patience needed to fully reintegrate his body into the throes of NBA basketball after nearly eight months on the sidelines.
"It's tough, but physically it's not ready for that yet, so even though it's tough, I can feel it's not ready," Bryant said. "But, we'll just have to hold the fort down in that time and try to stay within striking distance and go from there."

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/s...angeles-lakers

[Thebesteva]

I see my nig thunderup is Kobe's new advisor

[midnightpulp]

Kobe:

"35 minutes or something like that."

Is he crazy?

First of all, someone his age with that injury should be in conservation mode, a la Duncan. Secondly, the Lakers (prior to Kobe's return), had a nice rhythm going with their wing players, much like the '05 Suns, where any one guy can get hot and go off for 15-20 points. Sure, Swaggy P, Henry, and Johnson aren't all world, but D'Antoni had them in stride. Kobe playing 35 minutes mucks all that up.

[AchillesHeel]

Is he crazy?

First of all, someone his age with that injury should be in conservation mode, a la Duncan. Secondly, the Lakers (prior to Kobe's return), had a nice rhythm going with their wing players, much like the '05 Suns, where any one guy can get hot and go off for 15-20 points. Sure, Swaggy P, Henry, and Johnson aren't all world, but D'Antoni had them in stride. Kobe playing 35 minutes mucks all that up.

Lakers lost all their PGs to injuries, Steve Blake was their best player, he's out for 6 weeks.

[Rogue]

dude's averaging 6.7 assists a game since his return, that's the main source Lakers fans get the optimism from imho. guy starts to pass the ball which has to be even a greater news for the Lakers than his return & recovery from injury tbh.

[Chomag]

Of course... dude is still getting paid the highest amount of money no matter how much he sucks now so no worries for him

[Thread]

6

[UZER]

Kobe playing like so he cant throw his teammates under the goes. Goes to the "we're playing with heart" card.

outta here

[Spur-Addict]

This delusional actually said the other day that he can be the best player on a championship team going forward.

[Rogue]

Lakers should've waited at least till christmas to sign the extension with him imho. Maybe Kobe attached it as a condition for his return, like, he refused to come back playing without signing the extension even when the physio already showed him the green light.

[RsxPiimp]

3 games.

[Michael Jordan.]

0-3

[Kool Bob Love]

[Koolaid_Man]

0-3

[Michael Jordan.]

[Thread]

Lakers should've waited at least till christmas to sign the extension with him imho. Maybe Kobe attached it as a condition for his return, like, he refused to come back playing without signing the extension even when the physio already showed him the green light.

That's the low road. You don't go down that road with the player who beat then dragged Pau, Odom and Artest kickin' & screamin' to back-to-back. Only an animal would wait.

[Rogue]

So the 49m/2yr contract is more like a reward for his career-long service as a Laker rather than for what he's still able to do on behalf of this team?

[Koolaid_Man]

So the 49m/2yr contract is more like a reward for his career-long service as a Laker rather than for what he's still able to do on behalf of this team?

I'm amazed at the level of reverence you show to Cully...you should consider your oral fixation skills on me as well...I'd appreciate it more tbh

[Rogue]

I'm amazed at the level of reverence you show to Cully...you should consider your oral fixation skills on me as well...I'd appreciate it more tbh

not before you get back that gordon liu avatar or get yourself a brand new "Scarlotte" avatar, tbh.

[Thread]

So the 49m/2yr contract is more like a reward for his career-long service as a Laker rather than for what he's still able to do on behalf of this team?

The contract is a vow of faith that Bryant will be whole again at 25/5/5. If he is then we've secured a player who has actually rung. There is only what 3 teams like that: us, you, and Miami. Oh, yeah, I guess the Spurs, though that's what nigh on 7 years ago, but, to avoid another fight, or, campaign to get me booted I'll accept the Spurs (we'll pretend like last June didn't happen for argument sake, though it did). Now, every other team and fancy pants player who Media gushs over haven't rung. Media just talks about them ringing. That's easy to ring with talk. Try it in actual time and you end up like last June smacking the floor, gorilla style and shaking hands with everybody who you can cling to.

Anyway, we get Kobe back to it, we exhaust the contracts, finish off the retirement ploy with Nash we've been cultivating for over a year, we grab some jacks & timbers and we start back down.

[Rogue]

Thanks, Cully Kobe is more like a spiritual symbol to the Lakers and Lakers fans imho, I now get it, just like our goddess to me, and what Kobe brings to this team financially in the forms of ticket/jersey sales still far exceeds how much the team pays him. It's just some Lakers fans who said or dreamed that the Lakers could lure some big name FA in town, whom I can hardly agree with, it'd be impractical since they wouldn't have enough cap space to work with.

And it's just very difficult to sign any big name FA under the new CBA (unless the big name is dumb enough to sign with a band of red clowns, to play in a city where he can get the most cheap s as a compensation for the loss of $). We tried that a couple years ago and we had enough room to sign at least one max player that summer, but we ended up getting nothing but another cast of tired old bags.

Kobe's performance has been gradually improving since his return and it seems he still has one or two good years ahead of him. He can play till his 40s, he definitely can, but I think he'll choose to retire before turning into a TOSB role player (like the current Tammy), the way Jordan left the court. Guys like Kobe and Jordan just have too much pride in themselves to ever play a secondary role imho.