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UTAH’S back. Kobe Bryant says he will be, too.
A series
is now a series, which meant all eyes turned to the
newest Most Valuable Player as he took it easy on
Monday, resting his back in lieu of risking further
flare-ups of the kind that floored him a couple of times
in Game Four.
Bryant,
listed as day-to-day because of lower-back spasms, says
he’ll be ready Wednesday for Game Five, though it’s
unclear if he’ll be fully healthy, partially healthy,
somewhere in between or somewhere the Lakers don’t even
want to think about.
“I’ll
play. I can’t imagine it being worse than it was
[Sunday] night,” Bryant said.
Kobe Bryant sits on the
floor with a heat pack on his back during the fourth
quarter in Game Four on Sunday. -- AP
If it
isn’t better, it won’t be from a lack of trying.
Bryant
will be going through an active treatment cycle from now
until game time—electrostimulation, ice, heat, massage
therapy, stretching, everything but an actual back
transplant.
He hurt
his back while shooting a turnaround jumper on the
Lakers’ second possession of Game Four, managed to score
33 points, but lost his shooting touch down the stretch,
missing 11 of 13 shots in the fourth quarter and
overtime of the Lakers’ 123-115 loss to the Jazz.
He
acknowledged a day later that his jumping ability had
been limited, in case it wasn’t obvious to the naked
eye.
“I just
tried to shortcut it a little bit,” he said. “I think
they kind of saw that I was just basically trying to get
room and shoot jump shots and not drive. A couple of
times, I tried to venture in and drive to the basket,
but my back just couldn’t take it.”
Even
though the Lakers suddenly found themselves in a 2-2
tussle with the Jazz, it was tough to tell which battle
held greater weight Monday: Lakers vs. Utah or Bryant
vs. back spasms.
Coach
Phil Jackson even feigned surprise that the first
question from reporters was about Bryant, not the team
in general.
“That’s
the first question we’re going to have today in this
session?” he said.
And the
second, and the third and onward from there.
It was a
new injury for Bryant, who said he hadn’t dealt with
back issues since he was 21, eight long years ago. The
timing couldn’t be worse, with Utah winning two games at
home to tie the series.
The
Lakers haven’t lost three consecutive games since
January, when San Antonio, Dallas and Cleveland tripped
them up as they were adjusting to life without Andrew
Bynum.
A loss
on Wednesday could lead to the end of their season on
Friday in Utah.
Only 13
teams in National Basketball Association history have
come back from 2-0 deficits to win a best-of-seven
series, but Utah is challenging the long odds in such
situations (a 6.2-percent success rate).
Jackson
said he wouldn’t be surprised if Bryant began shooting
in a day or two. At the same time, the Lakers’ coach
said he couldn’t control the outcome of Bryant’s
recovery.
“I’m not
concerned at all,” he said. “I haven’t spent any time
thinking about it. I have nothing to do with his
recovery. He’s either going to recover or not recover.
What I have to do is prepare this team to play.”
They
could start by making more free throws. The Lakers shot
56 percent from the line (14 for 25) in Game 4. Bryant
made six of 10 free-throw attempts and Lamar Odom made
five of 10.
“If we
made a few more free throws, probably the game would
have been ours and we would be in a different situation
right now,” Pau Gasol said.
Also,
Derek Fisher picked up two fouls in the first three
minutes for a second consecutive game.
“It’s
bothered us both games,”
Jackson
said.
The
Lakers, meanwhile, spoke with league officials about
Ronny Turiaf’s flagrant foul in the second quarter of
Game Four, but a suspension for Game Five is not
expected.
“You
think he’d be suspended?”
Jackson
asked rhetorically. “That would be an amazing thing. I
wouldn’t see that at all.”
Turiaf
was ejected after a foul that sent Utah guard Ronnie
Price crashing to the court on a drive to the basket.
Price needed four stitches to close a cut above his
right eye. He continued playing after a brief trip to
the locker room. |
