Highlights of Saturday’s National Basketball Association games

After a humiliating loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Byron Scott stated that his players were intimidated with the thought of playing against dominating stars in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, the top point guard and small forward combination in the National Basketball Association.

According to several of those rumors, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year is getting uneasy and unhappy in Houston, a familiar scenario that haunted his stint with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant missed out with a shoulder injury and the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a 118-78 hiding at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. “I think it has impacted the generation coming in a big way and they will pass that along to the next generation to come”.

“The way I look at it, I just want to look at my legacy and how it impacts the future of the game”, he said. Players, like D’Angelo Russell, wanting to play a certain way, but a head coach and maybe a front office doing its best to sustain a losing framework and keep this about being Bryant’s retirement tour, as if to blur the tanking from sight. In the six games before missing Saturday’s game in Oklahoma City, Bryant has averaged 18.83 points on 48.8 percent shooting, 5.5 rebounds and four assists in 29.33 minutes per contest.

Houston Rockets player Dwight Howard has had it with fans and others who say that Howard’s having problems.

“I’m sure it didn’t help”, he said, adding that his shoulder bothered him before the play.

Most basketball fanatics in their mid-20s and early 30s grew up idolizing superstars Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter.

“The key is loving what you do”, Bryant said.

The third quarter will forever be known as the quarter of Kobe Byrant, as the Black Mamba returned for a few minutes scoring ten points.

Even with Bryant’s stronger play, the team has only won just one game in that time span, showing that even feeling good, his play is not to the level to carry the team. Yet he is isn’t always known to make the best decisions. He got up this morning and said it was really sore.

He said being able “to get to the basket and elevate and finish like that was … a reward for all of the hours I spend training”.

This wasn’t a classic Jones game where he scores 20 points or collects 10 rebounds, but Jones was pretty much the only reason the Lakers didn’t overtake the Rockets in the quarter.

Part of a 22-point effort on the evening by Bryant, the poster (video here) was the highlight of an otherwise forgettable night for the Lakers and their home crowd at Staples Center.

Knicks 107, Bulls 91 – Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points as host NY beat tired Chicago for its fourth straight victory. “It is easy for us to get caught up in the emotion of it all and forget to look at the tactics of it all”, Bryant said.