“I thought everybody hated me”, Bryant said through a beaming smile after his final game in Washington.
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The Lakers’ season was on a downward spiral but news broke out that this would be Kobe Bryant’s final season and it seems to have lifted the spirits of loyal fans and even the players.
During a game in Washington, the Wizards played a video of Bryant’s highlights during a break in the first quarter.
“We weren’t thinking about Kobe”, Horford said.
Regardless of Bryant’s greatness, the Lakers have struggled to win games and be as dominant as the Lakers franchise has been known for throughout the years. He only hit four shots out of 19 and finished with 14 points.
In this stretch of 15 games, Bryant led the Lakers to a 13-2 record while averaging 32.6 points.
Arron Afflalo added 18 points for the Knicks (10-10), who dominated lowly Philadelphia and Brooklyn in their last two games after a four-game losing streak. The Raptors was a display of that streakiness as they led by as much as 17 in the third quarter only to blow it in the fourth.
Meanwhile, Durant had been developing a reputation of being a media basher, which started during last February’s All-Star game when he said that reporters “really don’t know s*t” when fielded a question regarding former coach Scott Brooks. “It’s hard when you let yourself get down like that”. Bryant missed his first five attempts. They’re 1-3 on a six-game trip.
Retirement has been a shadow bigger than Michael Jordan comparisons, a shadow that crept up when his Achilles tore, when his rotator cuff went, when he fractured his knee that sidelined him the entire 2013-14 season. “When you spot a good team a lead like that, it’s hard to come back”.
THEY SAID IT: “It was probably the weirdest game I’ve ever coached”, Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach Byron Scott to the Associated Press after Friday night’s contest. Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant were briefly teammates during the 2012-2013 season and their chemistry was strained, to say the least.
Kobe Bryant finally delivered a performance that matches up with his closing legacy, and he will try to make it two in a row when the Lakers visit the slumping Hawks Friday night.
Bryant announced this season would be his last in a poem in the Players Tribune entitled ‘Dear Basketball’. G Tim Hardaway Jr., acquired from the New York Knicks for their first-round pick on draft night, was assigned by the Hawks to Canton of the NBA Development League. James exploded for 23 of his game-high 37 points in the fourth, including a go-ahead scoop layup around Davis with 30.5 seconds left.
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Brooklyn lost its seventh straight game on the road, their longest slide since ending the 2010-11 with seven losses.
