After making just 10 of his 32 shots in a loss to the Raptors on Sunday, Kobe Bryant pointed to “tired legs” afterward as the reason he’s struggled from the field for a second straight game.
In the game before, during a loss at the hands of the Miami Heat, Bryant shot just 8-of-25.
Combine those two performances and you get 18-of-57 shooting over the two-game span, good for a miserable 31.5 percent. Bryant has been unusually efficient with his shot this season until recently, so clearly, the fatigue is getting to him.
“I’ve just got to rest my legs,” he said, via the Associated Press. “My legs are a little tired. My shots are just short. That’s on me. I’ll take this loss on me, gladly. There were a lot of easy shots, a lot of them, that I should have put down.
“My offense was sub-par in terms of missing easy shots,” he said. “I’ve got to do a better job of putting that ball in the hole when the opportunity presents itself.”
As if there weren’t enough problems surrounding this Lakers team, they now have their leading scorer (and leading shot-taker) talking about heavy legs. That’s intriguing enough, but Bryant’s comments when asked how he’s going to deal with it may be of even greater interest.
From Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com:Kobe made an indirect plea to LAL’s front office: “Unless they’re going to do something roster-wise, I got to continue to push through it”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 20, 2013
Asking for roster help is comically tragic for this Lakers team, considering the additions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash this past offseason. Without losing an asset the size of Howard -- both literally and figuratively, contract-wise -- there isn’t going to be any help available from simply trading smaller pieces, and certainly not in the form of a player who would make a real impact in the time remaining this season.
Now obviously, Bryant may not have actually been “asking” for roster changes. But it’s a curious choice of words, because the mere mention of it is going to raise some eyebrows, and most would wonder if the thought would be spoken at all if it wasn’t at least somewhere in the back of his mind.
The only way legitimate help would come this year would be in the event that the Lakers get a serious offer from someone for Dwight Howard or Pau Gasol, one that would return All-Star level talent at the defensive end of the floor.
Since teams aren’t exactly lining up to help the Lakers out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves, or part with players who possess that unique skill set, this is the team that likely finishes the season in Los Angeles -- a season that may very well end before the playoffs begin if things continue down this path.
