Lakers’ Bryant, Clippers’ Pierce are still around to contend on Christmas

Long after it became a symbol of their rivalry as they jostled for NBA titles, the same motif works for Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce as their careers near an end.

Yep, the wheelchair.

In the enduring image of the 2008 Finals, Pierce was whisked off the court in the third quarter of the opening game in a wheelchair after sustaining a knee injury. He would return to hurt the Lakers in a Boston Celtics victory that presaged a championship for the Celtics in six games.

More recently, Bryant could have added a red cross next to the No. 24 on his jersey, so frequent were his trips to the trainer’s room. His last three seasons ended because of a torn Achilles’ tendon, a fractured knee and a torn rotator cuff. A bothersome shoulder kept him out of a game earlier this week, and Lakers Coach Byron Scott constantly keeps tabs on soreness and fatigue that might warrant rest.

Pierce is also achingly familiar with age-related discomfort, which forced him to miss a game earlier this week.

“His back’s hurting,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said when asked if Pierce’s being 38 had something to do with it. “So, yeah, probably.”

In a more festive development, the injury reports for the Lakers and Clippers don’t include Bryant or Pierce as the future Hall of Famers prepare to play one another on Christmas for the last time Friday at Staples Center. Bryant has already declared this will be his final season, but it’s probably best to hold off on pronouncing either player done.

Bryant, 37, has shaved a decade off his game the last few weeks, posting up and scoring over younger players and energetically leaping for rebounds. His revival is reflected in his average of 23.8 points on 47.2% shooting over his last five games, far outstripping his sagging production from earlier this season.

“I can still play a little bit,” Bryant said wryly after splurging for 31 points Monday against the Denver Nuggets.

Pierce hasn’t been all that productive in the early part of his first season as a Clipper, leading to some renewed thoughts that this could be his final Christmas game.

“It’s crossed my mind the last three years,” Pierce said Thursday. “Who knows?”

Pierce went on to describe conflicting voices that cause him to vacillate between playing beyond this season and calling it quits, a decision he said he will make this summer.

“You wake up every morning and this crazy thing in your head says, ‘Get to practice, work on your game, get out there and compete,’” said Pierce, whose 26,010 points rank 16th on the NBA’s all-time list. “Then you have that other little bug that says, ‘Maybe it’s time to hang it up.’ It’s just little voices. You don’t hear these voices until you get older.”

In some ways, Pierce’s career-low output of 4.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game was to be expected. The 18-year veteran was largely acquired for what he could do in April and May, not in November and December.

Pierce showed he could win playoff games last spring for Washington when he banked in a three-pointer against the Atlanta Hawks, memorably declaring he had “called ballgame.”

“You know he’s capable of doing something in the playoffs and he’s going to have that opportunity on that stage to close it out,” ESPN analyst and former NBA coach P.J. Carlesimo said, “and unfortunately Kobe is not and that’s a huge difference.”

While the Clippers (16-13) are vying for elite status in the Western Conference, the Lakers (5-24) are fulfilling a different agenda. There’s Bryant’s farewell tour and the development of young players D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson, not to mention the jockeying for lottery positioning as they attempt to keep their top-three-protected draft pick.

Is it enough for a team with five wins to justify ticket prices that can reach four figures? ESPN analyst Jalen Rose proposed a novel way to keep fans entertained while paying tribute to Bryant, now third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 32,916 points.

“They should start erecting his statue right now,” said Rose, who also played 13 seasons in the NBA. “Why wait? You can unveil it the last home game of the regular season. I think that would be a great culmination to an all-time great player.”

This will be Bryant’s 16th Christmas game, an NBA record, though the Lakers are a surprisingly poor 6-9 with him in the lineup.

Still, Bryant said he felt honored to be in “so many households at a very special time.” Some of the nationally televised games were memorable for him, some not so merry and some simply missed because of injury.

Bryant’s most important Christmas victory, by far, came in 2008 against Pierce’s Celtics. The Lakers had been throttled by Boston six months earlier in the Finals and needed some sort of acquittal when facing them again.

Fans at Staples Center were charged up for the first-ever meeting between teams with so few losses that far into an NBA season.

Boisterous Boston reserve Eddie House was booed when he entered the game, Lakers fans remembering his dance-on-the-bench celebration the previous June. Celtics guard Rajon Rondo was booed when he crumpled after a collision with Pau Gasol.

No, a victory on Dec. 25 didn’t erase a 39-point loss in a Finals-clinching game, but Bryant had 27 points, nine rebounds and five assists as the Lakers ended Boston’s team-record 19-game winning streak.

Pierce had 20 points and 10 rebounds in a game he remembered mostly for what his teammates wore.

“We had all these colorful shoes on,” Pierce said. “There were red shoes on, somebody had green shoes on. Couldn’t focus on the game.”

Recalled Rivers: “I went off at halftime. I mean, I didn’t like it.”

Ultimate redemption came for the Lakers in the 2010 Finals, emerging on the victorious side of a taut Game 7 against the Celtics at Staples Center. Pierce and Bryant have continued to respect one another from afar over the years, but their relationship couldn’t really be called a friendship.

“I wouldn’t say I talk to him, I don’t have his number,” Pierce said. “Our friendship is pretty much on court.”

Pierce has appeared in Christmas games in five of the last seven years, a tribute to his playing on contenders after having been a part of Celtics teams that cracked .500 only three times in his first nine seasons.

The Lakers’ last two Christmas games have mirrored the latter part of Bryant’s career.

He missed a 2013 loss to Miami because of a fractured knee and last year’s loss to Chicago because of rest, or as he called it that day, “old age.”

“My knees are sore…my Achilles’ are sore, both of them,” he said at the time. “Metatarsals are tight. Back’s tight. I just need to kind of hit the reset button.”

A year later, Bryant seemed recharged heading into Christmas, the only thing that could stop him being an old foil, not old bones.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

Twitter: @Mike_Bresnahan