Bryant skips practice in order to rest between games…
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Los Angeles Lakers coach Byron Scott has revealed that he is planning on reducing Kobe Bryant’s workload as he currently plays a team-high in minutes.
Scott has yet to formulate the plan which will lessen the burden on Bryant’s shoulders, with the 36-year-old previously conceding that he is feeling more and more fatigued but continues to push through the barrier.
“You know him,” Scott said after practice at the Lakers’ facility on Monday, which Bryant sat out to rest. “It’s real difficult. He’s such a competitor. He wants to go out there and play every minute that he can. The mind is willing, but sometimes the body is not.”
Bryant had one of the worst performances of the season on Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings in which he turned the ball over nine times and made just eight field goals. He scored 25 points but it took 30 shots and the Lakers ended up losing the game 108-101.
Scott told reporters that he had thought about holding Bryant out of certain games in order to rest, and it appeared as though Bryant wasn’t in an argumentative mood as he conceded that it may have to be the case in order to allow him to make it through the whole season at a high level.
“We’ll formulate a plan that suits him so when he is on the court, he can go out and play at full strength instead of trying to will his way through these games,” Scott said. “He’s such a competitor that he tries to will his way through it no matter how his body feels. I want him to get to the point where his body feels a lot better than it does right now.”
Bryant is currently in his 19th season in the NBA and he is still averaging a team-high 35.4 minutes per game despite coming off the back of serious knee and Achilles injuries over the past two years.
He’s averaging an NBA-high 22.4 shots per game and has been off target at an alarming rate which points to the possibility that a rest is what is required at this stage in order for him to find his best form again.
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