The Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers entered Thursday’s game, another LeBron James versus Kobe Bryant showdown, with an entirely different set of problems.
The Cavaliers had lost six straight amid reports of player insurrection and a power struggle between David Blatt and LeBron. Still, as the No. 6 seed in the forgiving Eastern Conference, they have hope, and 40 games to turn things around. If nothing else, they will at least be a playoff team, which cannot be said for 12-28 Lakers, whose season can’t end fast enough.
The number of remaining games between LeBron and Kobe is dwindling quickly and both players knew it. In one of the more improbably entertaining games of the season, won by the Cavs, 109-102, Kobe and LeBron spent the night smiling and laughing, occasionally even guarding each other, as if Kobe’s Farewell Tour had already begun.
And in a way, it has. There’s only one moment of suspense left in this forgettable Lakers season, and that’s whether Bryant will be shut down in the near future, to preserve him for what would undoubtedly be his final season in 15-16.
Byron Scott recently said he’d consider a shutdown if the Lakers were out of playoff contention in March, but on Thursday, he backed off, avoiding the topic entirely. Kobe wasn’t exactly relishing the idea, but he seemed resigned to his fate.
"It's a tough one for me. I want to play," he said. "But at the same time, I understand his position, I understand management's position. I will do what they ask me."
These are uncharted waters for Bryant. At 36, his body is betraying him on a nightly basis. He’s already sat out a half dozen games due to general soreness. He won’t be playing the second game of back-to-backs for the rest of the season. His playing time per game has been hard-capped at 32 minutes. With $25 million due to him in the final season of the $48M contract, it makes no sense to burn him out on a lottery team.
“I think he's dealt with it extremely well,” Scott said about Kobe’s curtailed status. “I think he understands he's still a hell of a basketball player, but he's not what he used to be. He can't play 40 minutes a night. He can't play four out of five nights. He understands he’s not what he used to be.”
With all that in mind, Thursday’s game had the feel of a retrospective, an appreciation. Scott had hinted before the game that Bryant, for all his recent woes, would find another gear against James, and the Mamba did not disappoint.
Bryant was coming off one of his worst nights of the season on Tuesday, a 3-for-19 performance against the Heat, but on Thursday he turned ferocious playmaker. In his 1,279th career regular season game, he recorded a career-high 17 assists, many coming off baseline double teams. Jordan Hill (20 points) was Bryant’s main beneficiary. Bryant added 19 points on efficient 7-14 shooting, but it wasn’t enough to hold off James, who scored 36 points and had 5 nifty assists of his own.
For one of the few times this season, the Cavaliers’ Big Three of James, Kyrie Irving (22 points) and Kevin Love (17) produced as expected, while the Cavs also got a boost from the always unpredictable J.R. Smith (14 points).
Still, the main event was Kobe v. LeBron, and Kobe, for once, enjoyed himself, both on and off the court, in a way indicative of his new maturation, and an impending awareness of his basketball mortality.
"If we were contending for a championship, I'd be my same moody self," Bryant said. "But right now, I tend to have a little more perspective, knowing I really won't get a chance to play against him for much longer. So you want to enjoy it."
When LeBron uncharacteristically mistimed an alley-oop pass from Irving, his dunk ricocheting off the rim and out of bounds, Bryant kidded him about it as they ran down court.
"He said, 'That's what old age will get you,'" James said later. "You start missing dunks when you thought you was up there."
But it was James who had the last laugh, winning for the 13th time in his last 16 matchups with Bryant. As the fourth quarter began, the Lakers trailed by only four, but Bryant, who’d already logged 26 minutes, was on the bench. Behind the Lakers bench, chants of “We want Kobe” could be heard from a crowd unused to this new world order.
"Yeah, I heard the fans," Scott said later. "I wanted to say, 'I want him too.' I know how much he means to us but I also know that in the long run it's going to be the best thing for us."
By the time Bryant returned, with 5:53 to go, the Cavs were ahead 96-87. And while Bryant’s three-pointer brought the Lakers to within 103-99 with 1:54 to go, James sealed it when he blew by Bryant and completed a soaring drive that pretty much iced it. After the final buzzer, the two future Hall of Famers shared a warm embrace. They’ll meet again for the last time this season in Cleveland on Feb. 8, and after that – who knows?
"I'm a huge Kobe fan,” said James. “I love the way he approaches the game. It's great having him in the league," he said. "Last year it wasn't as great, just not having him out there. He's a big part of what we all do."