Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers lost 114-108 at home to the Phoenix Suns in what would be Kobe Bryant’s second game after returning from surgery on a ruptured Achilles.
In Bryant’s season debut he didn’t quite perform up to expectations. So bad, to the point where he felt that if he had to give himself a grade it would be a ‘D’ or an ‘F’.
Fortunately for the Lakers and Bryant he performed much better tonight, finishing with a line of 20 points, two rebounds, and three assists. Despite the loss, it was great to see him show significant signs of improvement.
Part of adjusting to coming back is playing with a new set of new teammates. Some forget that the Lakers completely retooled their roster this past off-season, so naturally it’s going to take some time for Kobe to fully adjust to playing with this team.
After the game he spoke to reporters about his teammates and particularly the young ones via the Lakers official Twitter account:
Kobe: “It’s a learning experience. When you have a young team you have to remember that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 11, 2013
It’s very interesting to see Bryant show this much patience when he usually demands results from his teammates right away. After back-to-back losses he still remains optimistic about what this team can do and where they can go. We’ll see how they fare on Friday when they travel to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder.
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