Big minutes now could hurt Kobe Bryant and the Lakers later

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Lakers won a game Sunday.

They won it by relying on a 37-year-old with a staggering injury history who frequently details the many ways in which his body continues to fail him.

They won it by playing that very same player heavy minutes even though that's the exact opposite approach of what they've been saying that they'd do all along.

Oh, yes, the Lakers won a game Sunday, their first at home this season and second overall in 2015-16, helping them avoid tying their worst 10-game start in franchise history, a mark they set last season. And the Lakers won Sunday because of Kobe Bryant, but it wasn't worth the price they paid for it. Not at all.

"Right now, I'm barely standing up," a hobbled Bryant said after logging a season-high 36 minutes in a 97-85 win over the Detroit Pistons at Staples Center. "My back and my legs, man, it's killing me."

He added later, "I'm not looking forward to walking to the car right now. Seriously."

It is alarming that Bryant played that much considering his advanced NBA age, the fact that this is his 20th season in the league and the fact that his past three seasons have all been cut short by injury.

It's even more alarming because Lakers coach Byron Scott and Bryant said after the fact last season that Bryant had played far too many minutes before suffering a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder that sidelined him after just 35 games.

Since then, there's been constant talk of a "hard cap" with Bryant's minutes and a cautious approach so that maybe Bryant can remain on his own two feet throughout - and especially at the end of - what could be his final season in the NBA.

Then came Sunday, when that plan went out the window.

Bryant finished with 17 points on an inefficient 6-of-19 shooting from the field to go along with a game-high nine assists and eight rebounds. He hit a key 3-pointer down the stretch. When the buzzer sounded, purple and gold streamers fell from the rafters, which hasn't happened lately and won't happen too much more this season. "We needed this [win]," Scott said.

That's why Bryant played so much -- a victory that propelled the Lakers to 2-8 in mid-November, putting them in next-to-last place in the Western Conference.

"I just wanted him to go the rest of the game and see if he could get the W," Scott said.

Bryant was on board with that idea.

"We hadn't won one at home," Bryant said. "To lose another one at home would be disastrous."

He didn't seem too concerned about playing too many minutes, either.

"We had to push through," Bryant said. "We had to get this one done and take a day tomorrow."

Bryant won't play Monday when the Lakers face the Suns in Phoenix. It's the third time in the past four games that he'll sit out to rest, largely because of back issues that he recently said he has never felt before this season. He'll stay at home, take an ice bath, stretch and receive massages and more during a full day of recovery.

Meanwhile, Scott said this trend could continue, Bryant sitting out one game of the back-to-back set and playing more minutes than normal in the other one. (The Lakers have 15 back-to-back sets left this season.)

Scott also stressed that 36 minutes is the most that Bryant will play in a game this season, but believe that edict at your own peril.

What became clear Sunday is that any promises regarding Bryant's minutes continue to be about as reliable as Bryant's body.

What became clear Sunday is that Bryant (and, by proxy, Scott) would rather risk his fragile-as-glass health for a win even if it's a meaningless win during a rebuilding season when they're truly only playing for the development of their young players and losing enough to keep their 2016 top-three protected first-round pick, which will otherwise go to the Philadelphia 76ers if it falls outside the first three slots.

What became clear is that Bryant is about the now and not the later.

But that's who Bryant is. That's who he has always been. Success comes first, everything else second, including his own physical well-being. That ferocious drive is what has helped make him one of the greatest players of all time. It's also what has helped lead to his body breaking down, because you cannot expect to play through so many injuries for so many years without it coming back to haunt you.

Will someone step in to protect Bryant from himself? Unlikely, if not impossible. He has always wielded tremendous power over the Lakers organization but never more so than now, when their lone star is playing in potentially his final games alongside a head coach who is one of his biggest supporters; one who ardently believes that he is still capable of super-human feats in the NBA, a fact that Bryant believes as well -- no matter what his aches and pains tell him, no matter what the box score says.

Many observers have said that Scott enables Bryant, his former teammate. That notion appears to be as true, but it's also true of those above Scott. Indeed, it's an organizational mindset regarding the Lakers' cash cow.

When Bryant is on the court, it's good for ratings and thus good for business, particularly now when the Lakers are awful. Bryant, despite his constant on-court struggles, keeps them intriguing, keeps them relevant, and Bryant, a savvy businessman himself, is surely not oblivious to that fact, either.

Bryant and the Lakers can say all the right things about managing his minutes, and Scott can especially say that all he wants is for Bryant to finish the season healthy, but games such as Sunday indicate otherwise - that allowing Bryant to do what he wants, and that winning, are their top priority.

So when Bryant wants to be on the court this season, he will be on the court, and he will remain on the court for as long as he wants. No one will dare interfere, least of all Scott, not now, not during an entire season devoted to celebrating Bryant. No, Scott will cede his power, allowing Bryant to dictate the terms of how his farewell tour unfolds.

Still, there are 72 regular-season games remaining, and already Bryant is already having trouble walking. Scott should focus on the big picture now more than ever, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

"I always worry about the next game the next game," Scott said. "I don't worry about it while we're playing. It was really trying to get that lead, which we did, and then trying to sustain it. Then once the game is over, you start talking about tomorrow."

If Bryant and Scott are only focused on keeping Bryant healthy in November rather than how they can keep him healthy from now through April, then it seems all but guaranteed that the only way Bryant will leave the court this season is the same way that he has left it in each of the past three - when he suffers another serious injury.

And if that happens, Sunday's game will be remembered not because the Lakers recorded a win. No, no one will remember an insignificant mid-November win that pushed the Lakers to 2-8 during a lost season. And no, losing another game at home would not be disastrous by any stretch, regardless of what Bryant or anyone says.

Sunday's game will instead be remembered as the first game this season when serious warning signs about Bryant's health emerged, and from his own mouth no less, and yet both he and the Lakers ignored those signs, ultimately sealing his fate.

The Lakers didn't need Sunday's win, not at the price they paid for it.