Retiring Bryant leads, Curry second in early All-Star Game voting

The Los Angeles Lakers will travel to the FedExForum to take on the Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers outscored the Clippers 27 9 in the fourth quarter and Doc Rivers was forced to bring his starters back into the game after the Lakers bench unit dug into that huge lead.

After starting the season with an abysmal 31 percent from inside on field goal inside the arc, with a 20 percent from the three-point line through November, it was a hard to not agree with Kobe Bryant when he stated at not long after the season started that he sucks. Burks, known for his fearless play in the paint, is usually quick to bounce back up, but this time he lay there for a while, as coach Quin Snyder and his teammates rushed to him. Blake Griffin gave the team 13 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists while J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford added 14 and 13 points respectively.

Blake Griffin will be out for at least two weeks with a quad injury that he sustained during the early stages of his Christmas outing against the Lakers. On Saturday night, they figured out a solid formula for compensating for the injured all-star forward. “I’d be absolutely miserable”, he said.

The Clippers (18-13) happily took it to start their second extended stretch in two seasons without Griffin. Bryant, who has a record 395 points on Christmas Day, played 26 minutes in his NBA-record 16th Christmas Day game and scored 12 points for the Lakers. But the Jazz lead was down to four when Burks was injured with 34 seconds left in the first half.

Next on the Western Conference votes are Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook and Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul with 267,699 and 146,335 votes respectively. Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade is second among active players with 277, including 19 in a 94-88 overtime victory over the New Orelans Pelicans Friday, third all- time.

Leaving aside Bryant’s votes, the obvious frontrunner is the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, who topped the All-Star voting a year ago, went on to be the league MVP and led his team to a championship.

“I’ll put it to you this way – if I lost that championship, I’d be miserable”.

“We just wanted to win”, Gasol said, later adding: “We just want to be more consistent, try to play a whole game of good basketball”.

Nance had 13 in the third quarter for the Lakers, but like Bryant’s first-quarter performance, there was little support to make a dent in the Memphis lead.

Marc Gasol also picked the Lakers apart, finishing the outing with 16 points, six assists, and three rebounds on 7-11 shooting. “I thought we played with a lot of passion and a lot of emotion”. This team has enough promise to not be embarrassed, to not be a laughing stock-yet here we are.