Kobe Bryant’s goal is to play Friday against the Dallas Mavericks
Lakers star Kobe Bryant looks on during a game against the Miami Heat on Tuesday.
Seemingly every news item about the Lakers revolves around Kobe Bryant, and when his sore back will allow the 37-year-old to play in another basketball game.
Bryant missed the last two games, at Miami and Orlando, because his back was “still too tight,” he said, for him to play.
The Lakers didn’t practice Thursday, after flying from Orlando to Dallas, allowing Bryant time to get more treatment.
His goal is to play Friday night at Dallas, the last stop on the Lakers’ five-game trip. The Lakers have listed the 20-year veteran as questionable for the game against the Mavericks.
As this season progresses, Bryant grudgingly admitted that he may have to keep monitoring his back the rest of the way.
“Maybe. Maybe,” Bryant said after Wednesday night’s game. “Hopefully it’ll go away and we’ll keep it away.”
Bryant said his back first became a problem during training camp last month, with the pain increasing as the days and weeks went by.
“It comes and goes,” Bryant said. “The first game against Utah in the preseason, my back was tight. I tried to loosen my back up. The next game it was fine. Then I had a couple of practices, get in and started playing in little scrimmages and stuff like that and it tightens up and it goes away. So it just kind of comes and goes.”
In addition to Bryant’s health, the other endless topic about the Lakers is the progress of the team’s young players, particularly rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell.
During the last two games as he sat on the bench, Bryant continued to mentor Russell.
“I told him he’s playing more than I played my rookie year,” said Bryant, who started in just six of the 71 games he played in, and averaged 7.6 points and 15.5 minutes per game as a rookie during the 1996-97 season.
“It’s just staying with it. It’s staying with the process. Watching and observing. When you’re in there, you try to play as well as you can. When you’re not, you observe and you learn,” Bryant said.
Bryant understands why Russell has been frustrated about playing so infrequently in the fourth quarter of games.
Russell did play the final seven minutes against the Magic on Wednesday night, a step in the right direction for him.
So far this season, Russell is averaging 25.1 minutes per game, 9.3 points on 39.7% shooting, and 2.6 assists.
“I told him when I wasn’t playing, I was always observing, always studying, trying to learn what you can,” Bryant said. “It doesn’t mean you won’t get frustrated, get upset, get down about it. But you get in the gym early and you work as hard as you possibly can so when the moment comes, you’re ready.”
LAKERS UP NEXT
at DALLAS
When: 5:30 p.m. PST, Friday.
Where: American Airlines Center.
On the air: TV: TWC SportsNet, TWC Deportes; Radio: 710, 1330.
Records: Lakers 1-7; Mavericks 4-4.
Record vs. Mavericks: 0-1.
Update: Lakers rookie forward Larry Nance Jr. has been quietly effective in the last four games, averaging 6.8 points on 70.6% shooting and 4.3 rebounds in 18.3 minutes. Meanwhile, 37-year-old Dirk Nowitzki leads the Mavericks in scoring, averaging 18.9 points in 27.6 minutes per game.
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