Kobe Bryant may not have made the difference.
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Scott had announced before tipoff that Bryant would sit out with a sore right shoulder.
“I’m sure it didn’t help”, he said. Brown played 24 minutes, seven of them coming in the first quarter when Durant scored 14 points on a combination of the rookie and Nick Young.
Neither Durant nor Bryant gave many details about their Friday night get-together at Broadway 10. Westbrook had 13 points and 11 assists for Oklahoma City (18-9).
“They (the Rockets) have got a bunch of players over there that like to compete”, said Bryant, who had Lakers fans roaring and on their feet after he drove the lane for a dunk – his first of the season – over forward Clint Capela in the third quarter. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant were spectators on the bench for the entire fourth quarter, and the largest lead of the game was 46 points.
Warranted questions were asked as to how much Kobe had left in the tank after he missed 47 games a year ago while suffering from a torn rotator cuff in addition to the general wear and tear that comes with playing two decades in the league. “How much am I going to get fined?”
Anthony Brown played 27 minutes in a start for Kobe Bryant (shoulder) on Saturday against the Thunder, scoring four points with one rebound, one assist and two steals.
This is why I feel like when some people get so amped about a 22-point game, I feel like we are nearly insulting Kobe for having a good night and treating it like he’s done something incredible. “I thought about my shoulder a little bit”.
“It’s pretty heavy duty surgery I had this summer so I think it’s kind of logical to expect it to be sore at some point”, said Bryant, who hoped to be ready to play the Lakers’ next game at Denver on Tuesday.
“Hey man, you’ve got to pay my tech on that one”, Russell told Bryant, via ESPN. “We didn’t play as a team”, Julius Randle said. He has struggled mightily in the first 15 games of this season with mostly young teammates on a rebuilding roster, making a career-worst 32 percent of his shots and dealing with pain and exhaustion every day. Jordan Hill finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
“For a guy to finish the way he wants to finish, more than half his life as an National Basketball Association player, that’s an accomplishment in itself”, Durant said.
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Wall scored 20 points in the first half and then drilled a key jumper with just over two minutes left in the game after the Hornets almost erased a 15-point deficit.
