Kobe Bryant Returns to Hometown, Philadelphia 76ers Win First Game

The LA Lakers visited the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday night and retiring superstar Kobe Bryant was given a very warm reception by his hometown.

The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered their first defeat at home this season as 35 points from John Wall lifted the Washington Wizards to a 97-85 victory.

After the lead switched sides eight times in the fourth quarter, Bryant drained his fourth 3-pointer for a 101-99 lead.

Bryant made three early triples, but it was brick city from there.

Kobe Bryant scored 13 points in the first quarter of his team’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night before finishing with 20 points on 26 shots.

Bryant sat out the second half of a back-to-back last month and was 4-of-20 from the field in another, part of his 30.1 percent showing for the season.

After the Wizards tied the score on their next possession, Bryant went one-on-one with Washington’s Bradley Beal and answered with a 16-foot jumper to give the Lakers their final lead. And if the arena was so overrun by Lakers fans (and it sure sounds like it was) that they were booing Wall, well, that’s a damning indictment of Wizards fans just the same. The team last won a game in late March.

The Sixers got 40 points off the bench, including a game-high six assists from T.J. McConnell.

Turnovers: The Wizards committed 23 turnovers resulting in 33 Laker points.

Bryant said he looked up to Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jerry West and Michael Jordan growing up, but was pretty diplomatic when asked who if he could beat Jordan in a one-on-one game. And it’s important to go through that progression because I think that’s where you really learn about the self. “But it’s a pleasure to say that I was there every step of the way watching this kid grow into who he is today”.

There have been many reasons that the Lakers have been struggling this year though. Williams scored nine points in 21 minutes and Young added four points in 12 minutes. Reserve guard Gary Neal remains plagued by a groin injury and power forward Nene has missed two games with a calf issue.

Lakers: At the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.