Kobe-less Lakers Trounce Blazers, 99-82
Here’s how far apart the Los Angeles Lakers are from the rest of the Western Conference: With their best player sidelined by an ankle injury, they can go on the road and thrash a playoff hopefully by nearly 20 points.
Kobe Bryant snapped his streak of 235 consecutive games started after he exacerbated an ankle injury earlier this week, leaving Lamar Odom to start in his place. That was no matter, as the Lakers still rolled the Blazers, 99-82.
Odom filled Bryant’s rather large shoes extremely well, grabbing a career-high 22 rebounds to go along with 10 points. Odom believed that Bryant’s absence brought the rest of the team together to provide them extra focus.
“I think it made us a little more focused as a group, to come in here and do whatever we had to do to stay in the game,” said Odom.
LaMarcus Aldridge, who led the Blazers with 16 points, was asked whether or not the Blazers let their guard down once they found out Kobe would remain on the sideline.
“No, we came to play. The first quarter, we were right there. Second quarter, down eight or so, but we had good looks,” he said. “They just didn’t fall for us tonight. It was just one of those nights were we couldn’t find it.”
The Lakers ran away with the game in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Blazers by eight points to stretch their lead comfortably.
