All season long the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers have had injury problems to some of their best players like Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and most notably Kobe Bryant, but despite being banged up throughout the season, the Lakers have been arguably the best all around team in the league and have a legitimate shot of repeating as NBA champs at season’s end. At the beginning of the NBA regular season, the Lakers had to play without Pau Gasol who had a nagging hamstring injury that kept him out the first 11 games of the season. Fortunately, the Lakers were able to go 8-3 in that 11 game span without Pau Gasol in the paint, but a big reason for the Lakers success in that time frame was due to Kobe Bryant altering his game by becoming more of a low post presence.

Even though Kobe had some great success in Pau’s absence, the more physical game took its toll on the reigning NBA Finals MVP as he started to accumulate a series of injuries like a broken finger, back spasms and most recently a sprained ankle.

Once Pau Gasol got back on the floor it was business as usual for the defending champs as they got out to 38-13 record with Kobe in the lineup, but the injuries became too much for the Lakers superstar and he had to take some much needed time off to heal from his ailing injuries.

Even though a broken finger sounds like something you just can’t play through, it didn’t seem all that difficult for Kobe to adjust to, but after spraining his ankle against the Denver Nuggets a few weeks back, he had to end his 235 consecutive games played by sitting out against the Portland Trailblazers. With Boston facing Denver on Sunday, check out the latest NBA odds at the best USA online sportsbooks.

Fortunately, the Lakers really stepped it up in Kobe’s absence and were able to win four straight games against the Portland Trailblazers (at the Rose Garden), San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz (in Utah) and the Golden State Warriors. The first three wins were impressive and the fourth was to be expected against the lowly Warriors, but the true test came on Thursday night against the Boston Celtics.

Coming into this game there were reports that Kobe would be ready to go, but as it got closer and closer to game time, Kobe was listed as doubtful and eventually out of this game against their arch rivals.

All game long against the Celtics the Lakers were hanging with the Atlantic division leaders, but when it came down to crutch time, Kobe time, in the fourth quarter and the Lakers looked confused on the last play of the game with 2.2 seconds remaining down by one point 87-86.

On the inbounds play, the basketball ended up in Derek Fisher’s hands, but he was only able to jack up an awkward shot that didn’t even hit iron and the Lakers lost their first of five games without Kobe Bryant. for the fastest and easiest way to make a wager on the NBA, check out the best American Express sportsbooks.