Hobbled Kobe Bryant little help to Lakers against tired Warriors

The Warriors were whole again after the return of Draymond Green following a game off in Denver that they lost a night earlier, just their third defeat of the season.

The Warriors first gained separation from the Lakers late in the third thanks to a Curry/Livingston/Iguodala/Barnes/Ezeli line-up. The Bulls won 72 games that season and the Warriors now stand at 37-3.

Curry might be a menace offensively and the favorite to win a second MVP, but when he’s not playing it doesn’t mean so many dimensions of the Warriors game take a beating compared to when Green is off the floor.

They officially smacked into the season’s halfway point with a 9-32 record and are now 0-8 against the Western Conference’s top four teams – Golden State, the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and Clippers.

The Warriors selected North Carolina State center Todd Fuller 11th overall 20 years ago, two spots before Charlotte took Bryant and dealt him to the Lakers.

Bryant had eight points, six rebounds and three assists in 27 1/2 minutes.

CJ McCollum added 15 points and eight assists for the Blazers, who led by as many as 20 in the second half after the teams traded the lead in the first. We all have to develop a better mental toughness in those situations.

Yes, we have seen duds from him, but we’ve also seen good old-fashioned Kobe greatness on many occasions, including two 31-point games and an outing against the Sacramento Kings where he went for 28 points in three quarters.

Golden State fell 112-110 at Denver on Wednesday night.

Thompson hit a 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds remaining to pull the Warriors to 111-110.

Said Walton, Bryant’s longtime teammate, “To me, it was special and it was a handsome send-off”. “I thought they played hard”.

With the Mavericks on the second night of a back-to-back after an overtime loss to Cleveland on Tuesday, coach Rick Carlisle chose not to play his five regular starters – Dirk Nowitzki, Wesley Matthews, Chandler Parsons, Deron Williams and Zaza Pachulia. This will be the third time they’ve played the Lakers so far this season and they’ve won both of the matches preceding this one. “Now it’s important for them to carry it forward”.

Will Barton scored 21 for the Nuggets, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the Warriors.

Bryant was much more effective on the defensive end than on offense, limiting Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson to 12 points on 4-for-14 shooting.

Still, these are the cool moments from Bryant saying goodbye, and it’s nice to hear a snippet of what’s said between great players past and present. With Kobe in the lineup, the team gets outscored by 13.8 points, which would be worse than the last place Philadelpha 76ers, who are deliberately playing a bunch of D-League guys to tank for lottery positioning. “I wanted him to get the gesture that he deserves”. Hell, Curry has even drawn comparisons to a zoo animal – always on display – by Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton. “Whether or not he had one last 3 tonight really doesn’t matter”.

Brandon Rush continues to start for the Golden State Warriors, and the forward chipped in very little against the Denver Nuggets.