Kobe Bryant is done for the season; Celtics lottery prospects take a hit

Via ESPN Los Angeles:

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant will miss the remainder of the season, a league source confirmed to ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.

Bryant sat out the first five and a half weeks of the year recovering from a torn Achilles.  He came back on December 8 and played in 6 games, but then fractured his left kneecap, and hasn't suited up since.   Kobe averaged just 13.8 points per game, with a season high of only 21.

As of today the Lakers, Celtics, Jazz, and Kings are all tied with the 4th worst record in the NBA at 22-42.  Even if Bryant returned for just a few games, it could have added another win or two to LA's total, and that might have been the difference between them finishing 4th and 7th in the draft lottery standings.

To give that some perspective, the #4 team has an 83% likelihood of getting a top 5 pick, while the #7 club's odds of choosing in the first 5 drop all the way down to 15% (it's actually the chances of selecting 1-3, picks 4 and 5 are not an option from the 7th position).

Considering that Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and Dante Exum have pretty much been the consensus 1-5 (in some order) all season, this is a huge deal.



Follow Mark Vandeusen on twitter @LucidSportsFan