Leave it to Kobe Bryant to proclaim his team back in the playoff hunt after tying a season high in points and leading the Lakers to their second win in six games. It's unknown whether he still feels that way after another blowout loss Wednesday night.
But the Black Mamba told his Los Angeles teammates before their Dec. 11 game against the Spurs in San Antonio that the Lakers could sneak into the NBA playoffs, according to Lakers rookie Larry Nance Jr., in The Players' Tribune.
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"Kobe came into the huddle before the game in San Antonio and said, 'Look, we're five games out of the playoffs right now,'" Nance wrote in his rookie diary. "'Just think about that. We're five games out of the playoffs. There's three-fourths of the season left. This book is not written. We've still got time to do what we need to do, and sneak into one of these spots.'"
Los Angeles came into that game with a 3-19 record and actually was 7 ½ games out of the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference playoff race. The Lakers were much closer to having the worst record than they were pushing for the postseason.
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Bryant and company were 2 ½ games better than the 1-22 76ers, but Philadelphia does own the tiebreaker, having beaten L.A., in the only matchup so far between the teams.
Nance, however, wrote that the Lakers bought in to Bryant's comments.
"Some people might think that sounds delusional, but they don't understand," Nance explained. "They haven't been in our shoes. If you don't think that way, you've got the wrong mentality. You have to believe in yourself and your team, even when people around you don't. If Draymond Green would have said when he got drafted, 'By my fourth year, I'm going to be one of the most important players on a championship team,' people might have laughed. A four-year guy? You're not athletic enough. You're not big enough.
"In the NBA, you're supposed to be an ultra-competitor. If you're not, you shouldn't be here. And even if it might actually be 'delusional' at times, sometimes-delusional thinking is exactly what you need to reach your goals."
The Lakers went on to lose to the Spurs by 22 and by 29 in Houston one night later.
In a four-game span before Wednesday night, however, Bryant averaged 25.0 points per game on 50.7 percent shooting, and Los Angeles had won two of its last four games. However, the Lakers also lost by 40 points or more for only the sixth time in franchise history during that span, 118-78 at Oklahoma City, in a game Bryant missed because of a strained shoulder.
The Thunder than used a 22-0 run to start third quarter to thrash the Lakers again, 120-85, Wednesday night. The 5-24 Lakers would have a bit of improving to do to compete for a playoff spot.
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