Kobe Bryant skips shoot-around with sore throat, but likely to play tonight
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant celebrates after making a three-pointer against the Timberwolves in the first half Wednesday night at Staples Center. Bryant was just three of 13 from long range as the Lakers lost, 112-111.
REPORTING FROM Sacramento — Kobe Bryant skipped the Lakers’ morning shoot-around because of a sore throat, the team said, but he was not expected to miss Friday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings.
“He’ll be all right to play, we know that,” Lakers Coach Byron Scott said. “But he might be a little under the weather.”
A sore throat doesn’t come close to what Bryant endured the last three years, including a torn Achilles’, fractured knee and torn rotator cuff. It’s almost laughable to think he would miss Friday’s game, no?
“He’s gone through a whole lot worse than a sore throat and a little bit of a cold,” Scott said.
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Bryant would like to be a little hotter in the shooting department after making only eight of 24 attempts in a season-opening 112-111 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday.
He made just three of 13 shots from three-point range, and even admitted afterward that he might have hoisted up a few too many from there. He finished with 24 points in 29 minutes, comfortably under the Lakers’ preplanned limit of 28 to 32 minutes for Bryant.
Follow Mike Bresnahan on Twitter @Mike_Bresnahan.
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