Mar 13, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant (24) grabs his ankle before coming out of the game at the end of the second half against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena. The Hawks won 96-92. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

With 16 games to go in their season, the Lakers are 34-32. That’s good enough for the 8th seed in the Western Conference Playoffs and a half game ahead of 33-32 Utah Jazz.

Except this happened:

And now Kobe is out “indefinitely” with a severely sprained ankle. And he isn’t happy about it.

So, Jalen Rose is a punk. Dahntay Jones has some history with Kobe. None of this matters, unless Steve Nash can lead the Lakers, a more involved Dwight Howard and a returning Pau Gasol to relevance. (Also, a big guy named Shaq may have had something to do with Indiana losing to the Lakers in the Finals, too.)

Personally, I liked the idea of the Lakers just barely making the playoffs this year over Utah or Golden State and getting swept up by the Thunder or Spurs in the first round, but if this is the way, in my opinion it suits Kobe just fine.

More from the therapist’s couch — Grantland has a nice rundown of the fantasyland reality show known as Stars on Stars with Stephon Marbury that is the perfect exhibition of unbridled narcissism. I heard about this years ago, and assumed it was a New York public access thing, but to see it is really something. It makes you realize just how warped everything is and was for Steph. you can tell this show is something he genuinely enjoys and wonder if it isn’t one of the things he was envisioning when he forced his way out of Minnesota and then Phoenix to get back home.

Some excerpts:

They go on to talk about growing from kids to young men to men, while balancing being the children of parents and also being parents themselves:

Marbury: “You can never be wiser than them. You can be smarter than them.”

Kobe: ”You go around the block once, they been around it five, six times. Ain’t gonna pull a fast one on them. They know a lot more than we do. Especially when it comes to kids.”

Marbury: “Like, when they get a fever, putting a potato in the bed.”

Kobe: “A potato in the bed?”

Marbury: “Yeah, the potato, it sucks the fever out.”

Kobe: “What?”

Marbury: “I don’t know, like when they get the hiccups, putting strings on their forehead.”

Kobe: “WHAT?”

Yeah, the youngsters then talk about their ’96 draft class.

Marbury: “It’s so unique to say you were in a class with Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Shareef Abdul-Rahim, Kerry Kittles, Antoine Walker, Steve Nash, Stojakovic … I mean, you think about our class, Ray Allen … I mean, it’s like seven, eight cats that signed for the max. I’m just thinking, if they hadn’t put that ceiling over our head … “

Kobe: “Yeah, it woulda been problems for the league.”

So this is great, but it gets better. Marbury completely forgets he’s hosting a show or being televised, a common trend that makes him an unrefined yet fantastic interviewer. On Garnett’s max contract:

Marbury: “I’m talking about, he went in there and was like, ‘PUT THE MONEY IN THE BAG.’ You know what I’m saying, I was like ‘ooh, KG just hit ‘em for 126.’”

OK, nevermind he’s talking about Abur-Rahim and Kittles — that’s Glen’s money Steph is giggling about and didn’t get. The window into Marbury’s head is a skylight and

Reactions to the Minnesota Timberwolves loss at home to the Los Angeles Clippers Wednesday night will range from utter despair and despondency to slight reassurance.

Whether or not Barnes lost his mind on that play is irrelevant. What is telling, is that after the incident, the Wolves didn’t blush, they didn’t let the fake-thuggery advance the physicality of the game to disproportionate levels, they didn’t go Jason Smith on Blake.

Nor did they Andre Miller him:

Which, in my mind, would have been preferable, due to the ridiculous finish of the game:

Whether Blake travelled or Rubio could’ve checked in for Barea instead of Shved, it was nice to have Adelman back on the sidelines.

The always verbose Steve McPherson at awolfamongwolves has some good post-game quotes:

But in addition to playing harder, the Wolves also have to be tougher. “We have to be tougher at the end of the games,” said Rubio in the locker room afterwards. “We want to win, but we have to show it. Teams are playing aggressive and they want to win, too, so we have to not sit back. We have to push them.”

On the surface, this can sound like more of the same, but I think there’s actually a subtle difference here. Playing hard means exerting energy in a direction, along a certain trajectory. In the NBA, the season is long, and the games are long. For all the rhetoric about giving it 110% at all times, teams like it a lot better when they can build a big lead based on hard play and then hold the other team at bay. The latter is more what playing tough is about: bears play hard, turtles play tough. The Wolves need to push teams, but they also need to be able to take a punch. Oh and play hard.

But in his postgame comments, Adelman gave a hint into yet another element the team needs to develop. “It just seems like they start getting a little bit down and they try to do too much themselves and not as a team,” he said. “We have to play as a team at both ends and you have to trust your teammates.”