After crumpling to the court with a severely sprained left ankle that Kobe Bryant called his worst in the past 13 seasons, the Los Angeles Lakers' star guard could miss key games in the stretch run to make the playoffs.
The Lakers are the eighth seed in the Western Conference, and fighting to qualify for the postseason. The loss of Bryant from the lineup – or perhaps even him diminished and playing with pain – could seriously imperil the Lakers' chances.
The Lakers termed Bryant as "out indefinitely."
In the final moments of the Lakers' 96-92 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night, Bryant missed a fadeaway baseline jumper and landed on the foot of Hawks defender Dahntay Jones. After X-rays came back negative on his ankle, Bryant was livid with what he believed had been a "dirty and dangerous" play on the part of Jones.
In an email to Yahoo! Sports late Wednesday night, Bryant said that Jones "threw his hip and lower body into mine on the shot. That's a foul with 100 percent certainty. Dirty and dangerous play. Doesn't belong in the game."
Bryant believed Jones slid his foot underneath him on the shot, leaving him vulnerable on the landing. After Bryant had brought the Lakers within 93-92 with a 3-pointer with 18.2 seconds left, he missed an 18-foot shot with 3.9 seconds left that could've tied the game.
On his personal Twitter account, Jones tweeted, "…Tape doesn't lie. Ankle was turned on the floor after the leg kick out that knocked him off balance. I would never try to hurt the man."
Obviously a huge blow to the Lakers, though "indefinitely" may be misleading. It could be they simply don't want to put a timeframe on it just yet and he's only looking at missing a couple of weeks, or perhaps even a few games. Nevertheless, it comes at a bad time for the Lakers, who were just starting to turn things around before the loss to the Hawks.
As far as the play being dirty...well, here's the video.
I'm not sure about it being dirty myself, I've certainly seen more openly dirty plays in years gone by. Kobe also kicks his leg out on the fadeaway and that initiates some contact, with Jones leaping with him to contest the fadeaway, so I'm not sure it should've been free throws as some people have asserted. At the very least, I wouldn't put it on the same level as some of Bruce Bowen's greatest hits.
