Kobe Bryant, 37 and going to retire after the end of the season, scored 27 points for the victory of the Los Angeles Lakers with 99-96 in their visit to New Orleans in a match of the regular season in the National Basketball Association. The Lakers’ star scored the decisive 3 three-pointers in just six minutes of the game.
“When you know you’ve left no stone unturned, you can be comfortable in that defeat. With that being said, I wasn’t ready to be defeated because the season wasn’t over. So I wasn’t going to quit. At the end of the season, if these games never came around, I could look myself in the mirror and be comfortable with the fact that I tried everything,” Kobe Bryant said in an interview after the game. He spoke about his injury, which has tortured him for five years.
Bryant helped Los Angeles to take the lead of 99-96 a minute before the end of the game, but six seconds before the final siren, he missed from the penalty line and allowed the hosts to organize the final attack in the game. Jrue Holiday missed his shot from a long distance six seconds to go, which could send the game into overtime.
Clarkson was the second best player for The LA Lakers. He finished with 18 points. Clarkson scored 8 of his 14 shots in the game. D’Angelo Russel ended with 13 points, while Julius Randle scored 11 points and recorded 8 rebounds.
“Busy. No time off! It’s cool. I get to go out there and have some fun,” Jordan Clarkson said jokingly in a post-match interview.
Anthony Davis scored 39 points for The Pelicans, but his weak performance in the fourth period was decisive for the outcome of the meeting. Davis made some really terrible shooting efforts in the final part of the game. If he had scored some of them, The Pelicans would have won the game. The defeat was the third in a row for New Orleans.
“The league is going to miss him. But not the coaches,” the New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said about the legend Kobe Bryant after the game.
It is so sad that this was one of the last Kobe Bryant’s matches. He is still playing at top level and his performance against New Orleans Pelicans is the proof. Bryant is still fast and strong enough, but every sportsman feels when it’s time to go to an end.
