{"id":24598,"date":"2016-04-14T04:24:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T04:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kobe-bryant-la-lakers-win-nba-star-s-farewell\/"},"modified":"2016-04-14T04:23:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T04:23:19","slug":"kobe-bryant-la-lakers-win-nba-star-s-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kobe-bryant-la-lakers-win-nba-star-s-farewell\/","title":{"rendered":"Kobe Bryant: LA Lakers win NBA star’s farewell game"},"content":{"rendered":"

{‘Greatest’ LA Lakers star scores season-high 60 points before calling time on his 20-year NBA career.}<\/p>\n

Kobe Bryant went out firing in his final NBA game, giving the Los Angeles Lakers one more dazzling display of offence to close out his 20-year career.<\/p>\n

Scoring 60 points – off 50 shots – Bryant’s career came to a close on Wednesday night with the Lakers beating the Utah Jazz 101-96.<\/p>\n

Bryant hugged former teammate Shaquille O’Neal in the final seconds and scored 23 points in the final quarter.<\/p>\n

“Man, I can’t believe how fast 20 years went by,” he said, with a towel draped over his shoulders.<\/p>\n

“It’s crazy, absolutely crazy to be standing here on the same court with you guys, with my teammates behind me.<\/p>\n

“I appreciate the journey we have been on, there have been a few ups and downs but the most important part is that we all stayed together throughout. All I can do here is thank you guys for all the years of support, all the years of inspiration. This has been unbelievable. I can’t believe it has come to an end.”<\/p>\n

It was a storybook finish, the sixth 60-point game of his career. It also was the most shots taken by anyone in an NBA game in the last 30 seasons.<\/p>\n

He retires as the NBA’s third-highest all-time scorer and won five championships.<\/p>\n

Jordan Clarkson chipped in 12 points for the Lakers and was the only Los Angeles player to reach double figures other than Bryant.<\/p>\n

Trey Lyles had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Jazz, who lost their bid for a postseason berth before tip-off when the Houston Rockets claimed a win over the Sacramento Kings for the final seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Golden record
\nElsewhere, the Golden State Warriors earned an NBA record-setting 73rd regular season victory with a 125-104 blowout win over the Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

The victory came in the final game of the 82-game regular season and snapped the previous record of 72 wins set by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls during the 1995-96 season.<\/p>\n

To reach the once unthinkable 73-win plateau, the Warriors made a record 24-0 start to the campaign, won their first 36 home games, became the first team not to lose consecutive games and ended the season with a record 34 road wins.<\/p>\n

In the record-setting victory, it was reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry who once again powered Golden State by scoring a game-high 46 points, including 10 three-pointers.<\/p>\n

Results:<\/p>\n

Boston 98-88 Miami<\/p>\n

Toronto 103-96 Brooklyn<\/p>\n

Charlotte 117-103 Orlando<\/p>\n

Detroit 112 -110 Cleveland<\/p>\n

Washington 109-98 Atlanta<\/p>\n

Chicago 115-105 Philadelphia<\/p>\n

San Antonio 96-91 Dallas<\/p>\n

Houston 116-81 Sacramento<\/p>\n

Indiana 97-92 Milwaukee<\/p>\n

Minnesota 144-109 New Orleans<\/p>\n

Golden State 125-104 Memphis<\/p>\n

Lakers 101-96 Utah<\/p>\n

Phoenix 114-105 LA Clippers<\/p>\n

Portland 107-99 Denver<\/p>\n

\"It<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{‘Greatest’ LA Lakers star scores season-high 60 points before calling time on his 20-year NBA career.} Kobe Bryant went out firing in his final NBA game, giving the Los Angeles Lakers one more dazzling display of offence to close out his 20-year career. Scoring 60 points – off 50 shots – Bryant’s career came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24598"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24598"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}