Kobe Bryant not concerned about his play going into the regular season
With the regular season only a day away, Kobe Bryant was giving short answers in response to questions about the state of his surgically-repaired right knee. But luckily for Lakers’ fans,
both answers were of a positive nature.
Bryant was asked yesterday whether he could handle 40 minutes in the Lakers’ regular-season opener tomorrow against the Houston Rockets.
“Sure,” he said.
When asked to elaborate on the state of his knee, as the Lakers prepare to embark on their bid for an NBA three-peat, Bryant was again tight-lipped.
“It’s good,” he said.
Bryant did manage to play in seven of his team’s eight pre-season contests, averaging 12.8 points per game. But those points came with some desultory shooting percentages, including 28.2
per cent from the field as well as 17.2 per cent from behind the arc.
The Lakers can find some solace in the fact that they have a relatively easy schedule to start the season, with 20 of their first 28 games coming against teams that didn’t make the play-offs
last year. Moreover, they won’t see the Miami Heat, the Oklahoma City Thunder, or the Boston Celtics until late December.
Lakers' coach Phil Jackson said during the pre-season that it should take Bryant a couple of weeks to return to full strength. But the five-time NBA champion and 12-time NBA All-Star didn’t
seem too concerned about him or his team on the eve of another regular season.
"I think we're good," he said. "You don't want to push too hard."
Lakers’ forward Ron Artest didn’t seem too worried about his playing partner either.
"Kobe's made some progress," he said. "He started out a little slow, but he's starting to make progress."
While much of the off-season attention has focused on the Miami Heat down in South Beach, the Lakers did make numerous additions to their roster over the summer, signing the feisty Matt
Barnes, reliable point guard Steve Blake, as well as Theo Ratliff. Jackson said some of these guys are still acclimating themselves.
"Matt still has a ways to go. This system's a little bit foreign to him," said Jackson. "I think Steve's fine as far as I can tell."
Andrew Bynum, the Lakers’ starting centre who also underwent knee surgery in the off-season, is expected to return in early November, according to Jackson.
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