Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott said that limiting Kobe Bryant’s minutes is working.
Last week, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant missed three games in an effort to rest his aging body including the Laker’s Christmas day contest against the Chicago Bulls. People were a little shocked when the superstar missed such a prime-time game and many people assumed that Bryant must be hiding an injury, but after returning in just his second game back Kobe dropped his 21st career triple double with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in just 32 minutes against the Denver Nuggets.
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Coach Byron Scott seems to think that limiting Kobe’s minutes is working and will work going forward.
“So far, the experiment is working, we’re just going to keep at it and see how it turns out,” Scott said. “The experiment is working extremely well. The days off and the 32 minutes or lower in games has been working extremely well, and we’re going to stick with that for now.”
What remains to be seen is how Bryant reacts to this time off. Scott says he doesn’t want Kobe to change the way he plays and prepares for the game, but Kobe has always prided himself on being a bit of an iron man and not missing games. Coach Scott went on to say he is just taking what defenses give him and touted Bryant on his shot selection, but he said that Bryant has not gotten the number of shots they would like him to get.
In what is only getting worse and worse this season for the Lakers one has to wonder if they will continue to limit his minutes and possibly even give him extended periods of rest in order to preserve whatever he has left in the tank for a possible run next season. Most of us presume next season to be Bryant’s last before he retires. Kobe is still at the top of his game and averaging 24.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in what was just over 35 minutes per game.
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