Bryant showed a few flashes of his once-dominant skills, holding up three fingers on each hand after hitting consecutive 3-pointers to bring the loudest cheers of the night from the capacity Philips Arena crowd midway through the third. That spurt gave Atlanta a 95-83 lead with 2:05 remaining, and not even the magic of Kobe Bryant (insert laughter here) could force that lead to disappear. He struggled with both mid-range jumpers (0 of 8) and 3-point shots (2-of-10). Although, much to the delight of Hawks Nation, Atlanta would never allow Los Angeles to come closer than four points of their lead, as Atlanta closed the game -and Kobe’s career vs Atlanta- out with a 100-86 win.
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Bryant is one of 34 players in the US men’s national team pool from which 12 will be selected for the Olympics. It’s not going to happen again. “When I have my legs, I can go for that shot”, Bryant told reporters. I was in that state for the rest of the game.
He showed his age on the next sequence as Sefolosha blocked a shot out of bounds and was defending the arc when Bryant tossed up an air ball from the right side.
The Hawks finished with 11 steals, including four by Kent Bazemore. Rookie guard D’Angelo Russell had 16 points and a game-best 10 rebounds but also committed a game-high seven turnovers.
Budenholzer talked about the special aura of the night before the game to make sure his players were prepared for a Kobe lovefest. So did Bryant, whom Scott said will likely keep his same minutes despite nursing fatigue. The second-year guard Clarkson did not see any time in the final period, and with Scott and Bryant lamenting the Lakers being exhausted in the final minutes, it’s peculiar Scott did not look to Clarkson. “We said we’ll go out there and play our game and that’s what we did”.
“If I’m involved in basketball, from a league perspective, it would be from an ownership perspective if at all”, he said.
Lakers Coach Byron Scott revealed in a Friday interview with ESPN that Kobe Bryant told him during Saturday’s 108-96 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers that he was the first to know that he was going to retire after this season. Scott didn’t exactly have an easy time blocking out the news with his team on the court in the second half.
“I’m watching the game and I’m trying to coach the game and every now and then it would kind of pop in my mind”. After farewell stops in Philadelphia and Washington, the Los Angeles Lakers were in Atlanta to take on the Hawks Friday.
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With five assists on the evening, Atlanta’s Jeff Teague passed Hall Of Famer Dominique Wilkins for seventh all-time in total assists in Atlanta Hawks history.
