(Photo: AFP via EuroSport.com)
Los Angeles Lakers (13-13) at Golden State Warriors (14-13)
Tipoff: Saturday, December 21, 2013, 7:30PM PST
Location: ORACLE Arena, Oakland, CA
TV: CSN Bay Area | Radio: KNBR 680 AM
Livetweet: @LetsGoWarriors (by @goldenstatenz)
PREVIOUS GAME
Lakers: 104-91 win at home last night vs MIN
Warriors: 104-102 loss at home on Thursday night vs SAS
The Warriors hope to bounce back and limit turnovers, but they’re playing against yet another depleted team that looks very weakened on paper.
Most notably, Kobe Bryant, who sat out the season opener at Oracle Arena due to his recovery last season’s torn Achilles tendon, is out with a fractured knee. From LakersNation:
The Lakers received shocking news today that Kobe Bryant will be out for six weeks due to a knee fracture sustained in the Lakers victory against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night. It was believed at first that he hyper extended it, as he continued to play on the injured knee. This is another devastating blow as Bryant has just come back from a long hiatus due to his Achilles injury. Is this an isolated incident, or can this be a long chain of injuries to come for the aging Bryant?
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:
“I’m disappointed as a fan,” Jackson said. “I certainly wish him the best, a speedy recovery as a fan of the game and a fan of his. He’s one of the best to ever do it, so I’m pulling for him. I’m sure he’ll be just fine.”
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Bryant told Yahoo that “only an idiot would” doubt his resolve.
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Time is his newest opponent. He’s 35 and trying to come back from a broken kneecap, just weeks after completing the grueling process of overcoming an Achilles tendon tear.
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Bryant made his season debut Dec. 8 – about eight months after tearing his Achilles tendon in a game against the Warriors. He played only six games during a 10-day span before going down again.
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“You hate it for Kobe,” Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni told Los Angeles reporters. “He’s worked so hard to get back, but he’ll be back. … We’ve just got to weather the storm until he gets back.”
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On his Twitter account, Bryant posted: “BrokenNotBeaten.”
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“I think he’ll be back in six weeks, and he’ll be hunting for some bear,” D’Antoni said.
Playing against the Lakers is not only something special because, well, they’re the Lakers, but also a little bit of a chip on the shoulder in particular for Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson.
“No question. I mean, obviously you never want to put one game in front of another but when I was drafted here it was ‘Laker Land’,” Barnes said yesterday after practice when asked about playing against the Lakers, “You go on the street and it was like, ‘Hey you play for the Warriors! Yeah you guys are my team for 82 games. In the playoffs, I always switch to the Lakers.”
“I definitely had that mental chip in my mind,” Barnes added.
Thompson, obviously with his father Mychal Thompson a Laker during the “Showtime” era, said yesterday when asked about playing the Lakers, “My whole career, I’ve enjoyed it.”
“I used to be (a Lakers fan), but now I’m a die-hard Warriors fan.”
The Warriors also figure to be facing an opponent looking to take down a well-constructed Golden State roster. Add to that mix a rather disgruntled big man in Chris Kaman, who might be looking to prove a point to head coach Mike D’Antoni, per LakersNation:
Over the past couple of weeks, Chris Kaman has been dealing with back issues and fell out of the rotation in favor of Robert Sacre. When he was finally healthy enough to play, head coach Mike D’Antoni still couldn’t find any minutes for Kaman and he naturally expressed frustration about his limited role.
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With Jordan Hill not playing well, D’Antoni decided to play Kaman for the first time in three games. In 16 minutes, the center had six points and three rebounds, including an impressive block in the first quarter. After the 104-91 victory, D’Antoni said he liked what he saw and expects Kaman to be in the rotation…
Kaman played 16 minutes off the bench last night and scored 6 points. Jordan Hill got the start at power forward and Pau Gasol started at center. Without a bonafide point guard because Steve Nash, Jordan Farmar, and Steve Blake are all out with injuries, Gasol led the team with 8 assists last night.
As far as the Warriors are concerned, there’s speculation that Andre Iguodala may not be as close to fully recovered from his hamstring injury as one might expect with the infamously cautious training staff the Warriors have:
Agree RT @ppepp: i may be wrong but iggy looked at best 75 pct Thurs nite. U agree?
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) December 21, 2013
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Iguodala was quoted as saying he was not 100% yet after beating the New Orleans Pelicans back on Monday night.
And while the Warriors must, of course, limit turnovers, head coach Mark Jackson said yesterday after practice, as he usually does after the Warriors have a downturn, “We’ll be fine.”
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