In the process of looking like the champs that they are in their five wins against Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Dallas again and the Clippers, they also looked lost and uninspired in losses to the Clippers, Blazers and Spurs. Kobe had his worst game of the season, if not in his career, against the Spurs, but that was largely due to his plethora of injuries.
He's still battling a broken finger on his shooting hand, and a banged up elbow, and in that Spurs game, he strained his lower back after suffering back spasms earlier in that game. He struggled in the first half of the next game in Dallas but played well in the second half that he wound up hitting the game-winning shot.
The Lakers also got Pau Gasol back in their last game, a 40-point blowout of the Clippers. Gasol had reinjured his hamstring early in that January 3rd blowout of Dallas and hadn't played since.
In the meantime, in spite of Gasol's injury and Kobe being banged up, the Lakers have been getting some nice contributions from Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar. Ron Artest has also since returned to the lineup after his Christmas Day fall in his home that sidelined him for a few games since.
Back to Kobe. He's still fighting through the bad back but as he put it earlier today, "it's stiff, not painful." He'll play tonight. He needs 30 tonight for 25,000 in his career. (More on Kobe later as I want to touch on how he relishes the challenge of playing with all these injuries compared to other great players.)
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