The Los Angeles Lakers are 12-27 right now, 10 games back from the 8th seed in the Western Conference and would need to jump six different teams in order to make the playoffs. Coach Byron Scott was once again asked about the possibility of shutting down Kobe Bryant for the remainder of the season.
“I’m pretty sure if we’re nowhere near playoff contention in March or something like that, then we might discuss that. But the plan right now is to continue to play.”
Scott is in a bit of a tough spot. On the one hand, as a coach he doesn’t necessarily care about draft position or ping-pong balls. All he cares about is making sure he’s doing everything he can in order to win as many games as possible, and historically, he’d have to think having Kobe Bryant in the lineup gives him a better chance. On the other hand, Kobe hasn’t been very good all year. His shooting percentage is now down to 36.9% after going 3-19 in the Lakers 78-75 loss to the Heat on Tuesday. Also it’s not like the Lakers have performed better as a team in games Kobe has been active. Since their modest three-game winning streak in mid-December, the Lakers have gone 2-7 in games Bryant has played.
For now, Scott is sticking with his plan to sit Kobe in at least one game of every back-to-back, but as for shelving him completely, it’s looking like that will wait until March. The Lakers have a top five protected draft pick, so this will continue to be an interesting sub-plot the next couple months in what has been an otherwise insignificant season.
[LA Times]
