Father Time Isn’t Being Kind to Kobe Bryant

“My back and my legs, man, it’s killing me”. I go home, and I’m looking forward to that ice bath and the stretch, and a full day of recovery tomorrow.

Up until that point in the game the Lakers were fostering a six-point lead over the Pistons with Kobe doing much of the facilitating.

Bryant agreed with the approach.

Bryant played a season-high 36 minutes after logging 32 in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.

Are the Lakers headed towards another disappointing season?

“Sometimes you’ve got to go back to the fundamentals of basketball and back to high school type of stuff to kind of get your points across”, Scott said before tipoff. Despite his poor outside shooting, Bryant has taken 56 of his 112 total field-goal attempts from 3-point range, exactly at 50 percent. Their net +/- with or without him is slightly better towards him being out of the game, but just by one point; not a really big difference.

Bryant was on board with that idea. “To lose another one at home would be disastrous”.

Kobe Bryant saw Scott onboard the charter flight Thursday and stopped to talk.

It was Young, by the way, who wore an (ASTERISK)NSYNC T-shirt after the game and kept the metaphor alive by saying, “We’ve got to be in sync, we’ve got to do our dance moves and get the crowd going”.

The Phoenix Suns host the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night in a battle of Pacific Division foes. These days, it’s mostly the bad.

Guard Jordan Clarkson also had 17 points for Los Angeles (2-8) as Bryant made just 6-of-19 shots from the floor but was effective in involving his team mates.

Why does he keep playing like he’s still a good, influential player?

What became clear is that Bryant is about the now and not the later.

The Mavericks reached the 10-game mark and that means their season is no longer in its infancy.

Will someone step in to protect Bryant from himself? Scott has adjusted the times that Bryant plays in games, keeping him fresher and lessening the stiffness in his back.

Bryant said he has encouraged his young teammates to “stay with the process”. That notion appears to be as true, but it’s also true of those above Scott.

Hearing about sore backs is one thing but constantly keeping a player out of the court is another.

Father time and age is starting to creep up on Kobe Bryant, despite his best efforts. However, he makes sure to add “you never know” because he does not want a farewell tour.

The 2015-16 season is officially the “Kobe Bryant Unofficial Farewell Tour”.

Still, there are 72 regular-season games remaining, and already Bryant is already having trouble walking. Despite finishing with the fourth-worst record, they landed the No. 2 overall pick. “We really dug down defensively”. Dallas got a Pachulia layup and a free throw, a Chandler Parsons dunk and then Devin Harris raced through a stand-still Lakers defense to beat the clock for a layup and a 48-40 Dallas halftime lead.