Kobe Bryant will miss Lakers preseason game vs. Warriors

Sam Amick | USA TODAY Sports

Before we offer the latest Kobe Bryant health update, let’s make one thing clear: the man could cough ever so slightly while on his way down the lane for a thunderous dunk, and Lakers fans would still worry.

And who could blame them?

But after these past few painful seasons that were wrought with serious Bryant injuries, this latest setback is most certainly not that. Bryant has a lower left leg bruise that – while bad enough that it kept him out of practice the past two days and will keep him out of Saturday’s preseason game against the Golden State Warriors – is being downplayed by Lakers coach Byron Scott.

“It’s just a little soreness on the muscle,” Scott told reporters on Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times. “It’s not a bone (problem) or anything like that. He came out today and got some shooting up. But again, for precautionary reasons, there’s no need to have him play tomorrow when we’ve got two more preseasons games after that and six days before the start of the regular season.”

Yet considering the Lakers’ organization-wide goal is to have Bryant on the floor as much as possible this season, this is an inopportune way to approach the Lakers’ start of the regular season on Oct. 28 (a home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves). Bryant, who suffered the injury while driving to the rim against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, has played in all five of the Lakers’ preseason games (they’re 1-4, with three more preseason games in all). Bryant, who missed the 2013 playoffs because of an Achilles tendon tear and played in just 41 combined games the past two seasons because of knee and shoulder injuries, has averaged 13 points (44.7% shooting overall, 37.5% from three-point range), 1.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 18.1 minutes per game.

As Bryant told USA TODAY Sports during training camp in Honolulu earlier this month, he is well aware that simply staying healthy will be no small feat.

“Just play the game that’s right in front of you,” he said then. “That means a lot at this age to be able to do that, when you can react to situations, when you have the physical capability to react to situations, the skills are still there to react to situations. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself. And being healthy man. I’d love to play all year.”

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