Clips spoil Kobe’s final Christmas game

Kobe Bryant, in his swan song season for the Los Angeles Lakers, is the early leader in voting for the 2016 NBA All-Star game, the NBA announced yesterday. Lakers small forward Kobe Bryant will be playing on Christmas Day for the 16th and final time.

“I think our guys know where we can be, but I think our guys came into the season thinking we were there and we’re not”, Rivers said.

The Lakers went on to lose to the Spurs by 22 and by 29 in Houston one night later. “It makes no sense yelling at it”.

All comments that are posted on the beIN SPORTS website do not reflect beIN SPORTS opinion or vision. beIN SPORTS is not legally responsible for any inappropriate comments, users are exclusively responsible for comments they post and is described to be their personal opinion. 11 that included the announcement that this season would be his last, it looked as if Bryant and the Lakers (5-24) would have been better off had that retirement taken place immediately. Bryant holds the National Basketball Association record for points (383) on Christmas and is enjoying his best stretch of the season with a 23.8 average over his past five games.

Both Bryant and the specialists often call this stage “uncharted territory”, because no guard has played this long, and it’s all but unheard of for an athlete to still play after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon, let alone do so at his age. Bryant led the Lakers with 19 points. The two friends faced off on Wednesday night, when the Oklahoma City Thunder went on the road and absolutely thrashed the Los Angeles Lakers. “And I don’t see any debate in that”. The Lakers didn’t score in the quarter until Bryant converted a layup at 6:21. “I mean, I’m so used to playing on Christmas”.

San Antonio got its first points of the quarter soon after that on a 3-pointer by David West to start a 9-0 run that cut it to 70-69. Julius Randle didn’t play Wednesday due to a tweaked ankle that he injured against the Nuggets, and Swaggy P sat this one out with an illness.

The leaders in the East backcourt are Miami guard Dwyane Wade (300,595) and Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (138,191), who returned to the court this week for the first time after recovering from a knee injury.

“Not right now, but I will be”, he said, smiling thinly.