Kobe Bryant Returns to Week’s Worst Shooters as Career Winds to a Close

For those who haven’t been following along, Kobe Bryant’s retirement tour with the Los Angeles Lakers hasn’t been going well.

Sure, there’s the elaborate parting gifts and raucous chants from adoring fans, but with their 62nd loss of the season on April 6, the Lakers have now posted the worst record in franchise history (overtaking last year’s 61-loss season).

Bryant’s bottom-feeding shooting percentages haven’t helped the cause. Now, instead of riding off into the sunset, the Black Mamba is hobbling to the finish line with the gusto of an injured gazelle. Bryant made PointAfter’s list of the coldest shooters of the week, joining two guys on teams bound for the playoffs.

Note: Statistics in this article cover games from April 1-7.

Guard: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers

Damian Lillard has been on a tear since being snubbed from the All-Star Game. He’s scored at least 30 points in a game 10 times post-All-Star, reaching the 50-point plateau twice during that span as well.

But while Lillard has poured in the points and guided Portland to a playoff berth, he didn’t have a great week to start the month of April.

Interestingly, Lillard’s best performance this week — 38 points on 13-of-27 shooting against the No. 1 seed Golden State Warriors — came in a loss. In Portland’s three other games (all wins), the point guard out of Weber State combined to shoot a ghastly 28.3 percent.

It’s worth noting that the Trail Blazers have managed to win games in spite of their leading scorer’s struggles. However, head coach Terry Stotts will only be able to work so much magic in the playoffs without his best player scoring like he’s capable.

Wing: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

There’s a whole lot of red on Bryant’s shot chart over the last seven days. And make no mistake, Bryant is giving the fans what they want to see: jumpers from Kobe. Unfortunately, the volume scorer who never made at least 47 percent of his field goals in a season throughout his career has been shooting blanks at age 37.

From difficult fadeaways to long three-pointers, Bryant is putting it all on display. But in bittersweet fashion, a once majestic show has reached its frustratingly inept final season. (Basically, Bryant is the “Dexter” of basketball players.)

He did amass 34 points in his final game against the Boston Celtics on April 3, but it took the five-time champ 28 shot attempts to get there (39.3 percent shooting). Add in 2-of-12 and 6-of-19 shooting performances from there, and it’s impossible to omit Bryant from this week’s shortlist of worst shooters. That’s not exactly an ideal parting gift.

Forward/Center: Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks

In his three games April games thus far, Al Horford converted just 36.4 percent of his shot attempts. For a guy who’s made more than 50 percent of his shots on the season, that’s wildly out of character for the big man. His infatuation with the outside shot this month didn’t help.

In a 108-110 April 1 loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the former No. 3 overall draft pick went 0-of-6 from beyond the arc. That lowlighted a 5-of-17 shooting performance for Horford that doomed Atlanta against the Eastern Conference’s top seed.

He went just 7-of-18 against the Phoenix Suns four days later, then hit 4-of-9 shots versus the Toronto Raptors on Thursday.

Usually a reliable efficient offensive center, the former Florida Gator was anything but this week.

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Kobe Bryant Returns to Week’s Worst Shooters as Career Winds to a Close