LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant swooshed his first shot on Tuesday, a 3-pointer from the right wing.
After sitting out practice the day before because he was still fuming following three straight poor outings, that first make felt reassuring for the Los Angeles Lakers star.
Maybe a day off rejuvenated him. Maybe he would finally show shades of his former self.
But then his next shot, an 18-footer from the left side, was nowhere close to drawing iron, nearly hitting the bottom corner of the backboard. And his next shot after that, a transition pull-up 3 from 25 feet, drew nothing but nothing — an air ball.
The 37-year-old Bryant lingered after that whiff, and the Nuggets, who would go on to a 120-109 win, corralled the rebound and pushed the ball upcourt before forward Kenneth Faried finished with an easy dunk right down the middle of the lane.
Later in the game, with 5:36 remaining in a tight fourth quarter, Bryant did it again, firing a 3-pointer from the right wing that sailed over the basket. Another air ball.
On Sunday, after missing 12 of 15 shots in a double-digit loss, Bryant said he was playing like the 200th-best player in the league.
“I freaking suck,” he said then.
Two days later, after another double-digit loss that dropped the Lakers to 0-4, Bryant continued his free fall.
He had more fouls (five) than field goals (four), and the three aforementioned shots were downright alarming.
“[Been] sitting for 30 minutes, man,” Bryant explained when asked about those three shots. “Coming into the game a little tight.”
It felt more like Bryant was searching for answers rather than actually having one — or than just admitting that, yes, he’s a 37-year-old with an incredible amount of mileage on his legs and three consecutive season-ending injuries under his belt.
Consider the numbers: Bryant is shooting 32 percent from the field this season (20-of-62). He is shooting 20.5 percent from 3-point range (7-of-34). And he shot 4-of-11 against the Nuggets and missed his final four attempts from beyond the arc.
In short, Bryant is putting on an ugly bricklaying exhibition, one laden with contested jumpers and other ill-advised shots. There was a time when Bryant sank those shots with relative ease, but now, so many of them aren’t even coming close.
“He’ll figure it out,” said Lakers coach Byron Scott. “Kobe is the last person that I worry about.”
Perhaps Scott should start worrying, not just for Bryant’s sake but, more importantly, for the younger Lakers that the team plans to build its future around.
“We just keep working,” Scott said. “That’s all we can do.”
Four games is a small sample size, sure. A lot could change.
But at the moment, there are no sure signs that it will. If anything, these four games seem to foreshadow a decline that will only steepen from here.