Bryant misses first game of season with injured left shin - USA TODAY

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Bryant misses first game of season with injured left shin - USA TODAY Apr 8th 2012, 04:42 By J. Michael Falgoust, USA TODAY Updated The Los Angeles Lakers' season took an unexpected twist Saturday when the team held out Kobe Bryant because of a left shin injury - missing his first game of the season -- and it's not clear when he'll return. By Matt York, AP Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant watches from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Suns on Saturday at Phoenix. Bryant sat out a pivotal game vs. the Phoenix Suns and the Lakers (35-22) gave up a season-high for points allowed in a 125-105 loss. Their other Pacific Division rival, the Los Angeles Clippers (33-22), played the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. The division winner will secure a top four seeding for the postseason, which means home-court advantage in the first round. Lakers trainer Gary Vitti put Bryant's left foot in a protective boot and admitted that Byrant had been playing through the injury for a while. Bryant was a late scratch from the Suns game. In Friday's 112-107 loss to the Houston Rockets, Bryant was hobbled late in the fourth quarter. He began this season with a torn ligament in his left wrist and played through it. Bryant led the NBA in scoring at 28.1 points per game going into Saturday. Little-used Devin Ebanks started in his place. Ebanks had 12 points on 6-for-11 shooting. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines.  This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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