Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has played over 46 minutes in the past four games despite recently returning from an ankle injury. However, Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni understands the importance of the team having their all-time leading scorer on the court as much as possible as the team fights for a final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
"We're playing a little bit with fire," D'Antoni told ESPNLA.com of Bryant on Monday. "We wouldn't like to but we put ourselves in the position we have to."
"We're short-handed right now and we're playing it very tight. Normally this wouldn't happen but we put ourselves in a hole and Kobe is our best bet going forward to win games. He said he's going to retire after a year so we're going to get our money's worth for two years. I don't know what to tell you."
Bryant played all but 40 seconds of the Lakers' 109-95 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. He finished with 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, but shot just 6-for-19 from the field.
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