Kobe Bryant didn’t talk to reporters today, but Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he and the guard talked on the flight home from Minneapolis late Friday night. Jackson said Bryant intends to play in Sunday afternoon’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Bryant sat out Friday’s West-clinching win over Minnesota and Thursday’s loss to Denver because of what the team described as swelling on his right knee. More news Sunday.
MINNEAPOLIS — The West is won. The Lakers took care of business tonight, defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves and clinching the top record in the Western Conference for the third consecutive season. They will have home-court advantage for the first three rounds of the playoffs. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers have a better record overall. the Lakers sealed the deal thanks to Pau Gasol scoring 29 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. Lamar Odom added 13 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Farmar also scored 13. Ron Artest, Shannon Brown and DJ Mbenga each scored 11 points. It was a career high for the seldom-used Mbenga. Jonny Flynn had 19 points for Minnesota. Kevin Love added 12 points and 18 rebounds.
MINNEAPOLIS — Fatigue is setting in for the Lakers, who just gave up 31 points in the third quarter after limiting the Timberwolves to 34 points in the first half. The Lakers slowed to a crawl at the other end, too, after it seemed they might run away and hide. Pau Gasol is having a monster game, scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 rebounds so far. Shannon Brown has 11 and Jordan Farmar has 10. Others are struggling.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Lakers are halfway to clinching the best record in the Western Conference. It’s been ugly at times tonight, but the Lakers dropped a defensive hammer on the Timberwolves in the first half. The Lakers held Minnesota to 34 points on 37.5 percent shooting. Pau Gasol scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Lakers. Coach Phil Jackson played everybody available to him and everybody contributed something. Jackson promised to spread around the minutes after the team arrived in the Twin Cities around 5 a.m. from Denver, where they lost to the Nuggets on Thursday.
MINNEAPOLIS — Kobe Bryant did not play again tonight and the Lakers sputtered again. They led a narrow lead, but their shooting touch was woeful. They made 8 of 22 shots (36.4 percent) in the opening quarter. Shannon Brown, rather than Sasha Vujacic, replaced Bryant in the starting lineup and scored a team-leading eight points. Pau Gasol had six points and five rebounds. The Timberwolves played without Al Jefferson, who was not with the team because he was attending to a family matter. The Lakers were looking for their third consecutive win over the Wolves this season and their 11th overall.
MINNEAPOLIS — Kobe Bryant will sit out tonight’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves because of swelling in his right knee. He also might not play in any of the Lakers’ final three regular-season games, according to Lakers coach Phil Jackson. Bryant did not play in the Lakers’ loss Thursday night to the Denver Nuggets. “I’m not putting anything on him about Portland,” Jackson said before tonight’s game. “I basically said if you have to take all the games off until the playoffs, we have to do that. I’m not going to speculate. That’s two days away. I just have to worry about today.”
MINNEAPOLIS — Here’s Lakers coach Phil Jackson’s take on three possible first-round playoff opponents: “Well, you know, San Antonio has a tiebreaker with Oklahoma, and that sets things up. Portland has the fewest games and probably has the easiest schedule, three out of four (at home). So, I think Portland is going to be in sixth and then it’s going to be a toss-up. If it’s a tie, the tie goes to San Antonio. So, we’re kind of looking at Oklahoma as the odd-on favorite to be in that (eighth) spot. They had devastating losses Tuesday and Wednesday, both games they could have won. This is how you get experience as a young team. This is how you garner the ability to play through what happened (Wednesday). They had a 13-point lead (against the Nuggets) and couldn’t hold it.”
DENVER — Lakers coach Phil Jackson said after the team’s 98-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets tonight that it was Kobe Bryant’s decision to sit out because of swelling in his right knee. Jackson also said he would leave it up to Bryant as to whether he would play in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers need one victory in their final four regular-season games to secure the best record in the Western Conference.
The question is, what would you do if you were Bryant and the Lakers? Would you play? Or sit out and come back healthier for Sunday’s game against Portland?
P.S., The Lakers are 4-2 without Bryant in the lineup this season. Their only two losses came on last-second misses by Derek Fisher tonight against Denver and against the Boston Celtics on Feb. 18, when Bryant missed his fifth and final game because of a strained tendon in his left ankle. What’s more, the Lakers have won 10 consecutive games over the Timberwolves, including two earlier this season at Staples Center.
DENVER — With leading scorer Kobe Bryant scratched because of swelling in his right knee, the Lakers struggled to score tonight. Andrew Bynum sat out for the ninth game because of a strained left Achilles tendon, so the Lakers were without two-fifths of their starting lineup and a combined 43 points. Ron Artest led the Lakers with 15 points in the first half and Pau Gasol added 14. The Lakers shot only 33.3 percent. Sasha Vujacic scored two in place of Bryant. Shannon Brown replaced Vujacic to start the second half.
DENVER — Lakers coach Phil Jackson hinted before the game that he might sit out one of his top players tonight against the Denver Nuggets. That player turned out to be Kobe Bryant, who was replaced in the starting lineup by Sasha Vujacic. Jackson said he wasn’t as concerned about Bryant’s broken right index finger as he was about his dead legs. Denver’s mile-high altitude wasn’t going to help matters in that regard, so Bryant did not dress. It’s more likely he’ll play in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.