Despite the advancing age and recent injury history, it doesn’t look as if Kobe Bryant will be a problem for the Lakers.
He had 26 points, four rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes of the Lakers’ 98-91 exhibition victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday, the strongest sign yet of his return from a lost season.
He didn’t shoot well, making seven of 22 attempts, but he drove the lane more in the Lakers’ fifth exhibition game than the previous four combined.
He also made a three-point basket with 6 minutes 25 seconds left in the second quarter, ending the Lakers’ bizarre 13-quarter span without one.
Happy days dropped into Staples Center again, even if it was only an exhibition. The Lakers will take just about anything after consecutive losses by 33, 41 and 15 points.
Especially if it involves Bryant.
“I think each game he’s just getting a little bit stronger,” Coach Byron Scott said. “He’s feeling a little bit more comfortable and confident. So hopefully in the next week and a half he’ll be pretty close to where we want him to be.”
That would be around the time of the Lakers’ season opener, Oct. 28 against Houston.
Bryant gave his trademark “I felt fine” after the game and acknowledged he wanted to get to the line to right a recent wrong. He made only seven of 13 free-throws in the Lakers’ previous game. He was nine for 11 on Sunday.
“It was a personal challenge to try not to miss six free throws,” he said wryly. “I wound up missing two, not six. Next game will be zero.”
Not to be overlooked, the Lakers overturned a 54-38 deficit after one half by playing much better second-half defense and finished with 17 steals, six by Carlos Boozer.
Boozer had 19 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes.
“He’s a force down low, so it’s just a matter of him just getting back to the way they used to play in Utah and be really aggressive night in and night out,” Bryant said.
Wobbly bench
Xavier Henry was the logical choice to replace injured Nick Young as the Lakers’ sixth man.
But with the Lakers’ indescribable spate of injuries, logic gets tossed out with the week-old game-worn socks.
Henry will go to Germany for a procedure on his troublesome right knee, the same “Regenokine” treatment Bryant has received a handful of times.
Young averaged 17.9 points last season and Henry had 10 points per game, so the Lakers already have nearly nothing in reserve.
What can Scott do?
“I don’t think I can necessarily look at one guy and say, ‘We need you to go out and get buckets for us.’ It’s got to be by committee,” he said.
Shooting guard Wayne Ellington was the first player off the Lakers’ bench Sunday. He doesn’t even have a fully guaranteed contract.
Robert Sacre is known more for his defense but he led the Lakers reserves with four points in the first half.
Ryan Kelly was on track for a return Sunday after a lengthy absence because of a strained right hamstring. At the morning shoot-around, however, he strained his other hamstring.
“It was crazy. Last drill, he felt a little twinge,” he said. “Nowhere near as bad as the first hamstring but good enough to the point where he can’t play [Sunday].”
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