Kobe Bryant Stomach Illness Puts Game 6 Status In Doubt
The Los Angeles Lakers learned of some pretty terrible news Thursday. Superstar guard Kobe Bryant missed the pre-game team shootaround with a stomach illness. Bryant may miss Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets Thursday night due to the illness. Officially, Bryant is suffering from gastrointeritis which causes stomach pain and vomiting.
The Lakers plan to give another update on Bryant’s conditioning as soon as they can.
This does not bode well for the Lakers at all. With Bryant being out, the Lakers’ bench will have to step up their game and produce like never before to try and close this game out. The Lakers are up 3-2 and in this series the Lakers bench has been outscored 196-85 in the five games in the series. A ridiculous margin for the Lakers who are supposed to be great.
Game 6 is where the Lakers need to play as a team. The bigs Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol have to come together to put up huge numbers. Point guard Steve Blake needs to hit the wide-open three pointers when he gets them. Someone needs to step up to fulfill the huge hole that Bryant may leave tonight.
If Bryant does not play, he will be leaving 31.2 points per game to fill in this game. In Game 5, Bryant scored 43 points in a losing effort as the Lakers lost 102-99 Tuesday.
It will be interesting to see if Bryant plays in this game. He might have to pull off a Michael Jordan-type performance when he led the Chicago Bulls in Game 5 in the 1997 NBA Finals. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If the Lakers feel like they could win either Thursday or in Game 7, Bryant will probably not play.
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