Kobe's injury hurting the Lakers?

[Sedale Threatt]

It's a good plan. The thing is, will two weeks really help? I have no idea, I'm just thinking out loud. If he can get some definitive rest, then yeah, I'd be willing to sacrifice a couple of games. We're probably not going to catch the Cavs anyway.

[H00PDREAMS]

Any news yet on Kobe sitting tonight? I would be okay if he only played 10 minutes or so. I mean if he just HAS to play sure 10 -15 minutes is more than enough to settle his basketball jonizin'. He can take the rest of the game in watching from the bench. It would be cool to see who steps up, my bet would be Gasol.

[TommyTheCat]

We'd be stupid as hell not to put Kobe on the injured list right now and sit him for two weeks (he can come back against Boston). That would let his ankle and other nagging injures heal (except for the finger), and it'll give him some much needed rest.

Denver probably won't have Melo Friday night and it's a home game. We can win that without Kobe. We'll lose to Portland regardless, and if we lose against SAS and UTA then so be it (a win against either would be spectacular). We'll still be able to take GS, so that's a 2-3 record with Mr. Bryant which still keeps us in the lead. Heck, even if we lose all those games it'll still be worth it.

Phil has got to take charge and do the right thing here.

yeah, i'm with you on sitting kobe for a while. i think this team has enough experienced vets to deal with not having home court throughout if that's what it comes down to. kobe needs to get healthier and stop chucking when he comes back

[ManuteBol69]

its either gonna be him playing a full game or not. theres no way kobe will ok with playing 10-15 mins, that would kill his stat line.

[semi-sentient]

It's a good plan. The thing is, will two weeks really help? I have no idea, I'm just thinking out loud. If he can get some definitive rest, then yeah, I'd be willing to sacrifice a couple of games. We're probably not going to catch the Cavs anyway.

Two weeks will be enough to let his ankle sprain heal. Not resting will only keep it from healing and potentially making it worse. Of course that depends on the severity of the sprain, but it doesn't look too bad. If we need to bump it up to 3 weeks then that's fine as well. It just means he'll miss the home game against Boston on the 18th, and they're in pretty bad shape as well so we might just be able to pull it out without him anyway. We have 5 days off after that game, so Kobe can return on the 23rd against the Grizz and he will have missed a total of 6 games while getting a solid 3 weeks off.

I don't know how much longer his finger has to heal, but he broke it on December 12th so perhaps 3 weeks worth of uninterrupted healing will get it back to close to 100% -- or at least such that he doesn't have to wear the splint.

Whatever the case, we can afford to go 2-4 or 1-5 and not have to worry about giving up home court advantage in the West, not that it should really matter.

We have to take advantage of the extra time we'll be getting with the All-Star break and the time off between the Boston and Memphis game.

[Free Rider]

He should just sit. Yes it might cost us home court advantage throughout the playoffs but we're much better off with a healthy Kobe than an injured one limping throughout the playoffs. It would be far more devastating if something happens to him that cost us some games later in the playoffs. Part of the reason we went through the trouble of acquiring all this talent was to take the pressure off Kobe so he's not carrying the load for the entire team. We can get by with Gasol, Bynum, Artest, and Odom for a week or two; it won't be the end of the world. The way I see it is a championship team should be able to win games on the road so losing home court to Cleveland or Denver shouldn't cost us a ship.

[magic1fan]

yell after seeing the team beat protland,even though they are more depleted than we are,i think we can get by without kobe for a minute. i think he and phil have instilled a calming confidence in our team. a healthy kobe almost guarantee's a ship,if we bring it every night.