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Los Angeles • Last week, Lakers coach Byron Scott laid out his dream scenario for Kobe Bryant's final game: play a lot, score 50, hit the game winner. As it turns out, the biggest star in a town full of them deviated from the script just a little Wednesday night. He dropped 60 on the Jazz.
"I can't believe this actually happened, to be honest," Bryant said. "This is kind of crazy to me, the last game at home. It's hard for me to believe that it happened this way, it really is. Just the outpour of support all night long, former teammates, fans and family. It's just cool to be here, it's unbelievable. I'm still in shock about it."
Kobe's farewell is the stuff of legend now.
And in the highlight reel, the Utah Jazz will be playing the fool.
"His will is a powerful thing," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "Hats off to him and his career and what he's done for the game. I just have so much respect for him. The fact that we came up on the short end, it is what it is. You're happy for someone of that stature to end his career that way. At the same time, you don't like being on the other side of that."
Bryant scored 23 points in the fourth quarter alone and, on a night when his light was as green as could be (he took 50 shots in total), he was actually quite efficient when it mattered most. The Lakers legend connected on 8 of his 16 looks in the quarter, as he rallied his team to victory.
"You knew it was going to be his night when he came out firing," Jazz forward Gordon Hayward said. "He hit some tough shots there in the first quarter and had like 15 or something. I think we probably got caught up a little bit in the moment and everything that happened. I think we had an 8- or 10-point lead there at the end of the game and just didn't play well down the stretch."
And, as Scott said, "You kind of sit there and think, '[Dang], he's something else.'"

Here are some quotes from Kobe's final press conference:

On the most memorable part of the game

"I think the fans, the reaction of the fans, the chanting, the support, the encouragement. I was really, really tired. I just had to continue to push. The fans' support was tremendous. I think that is the thing that I'm going to remember."

On working out tomorrow morning

"I have to. That's a very slippery slope. I've done some research from players, post career, and it goes, 'Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.' Then all of a sudden it's, 'Uh oh.' I think the important thing is to get into a routine, to maintain discipline, to find a groove. I have been in a certain routine my entire career. I think the worst thing I can possibly do is not have one because then you wake up without a sense of purpose or a sense of direction. So I have to find a routine, get into it and be comfortable in it."

On trying to approach this game as any other

"Didn't work out that way, in a good way. There were so many people to talk to, times to be signed, pictures to be taken. I just have myself up to that. I just said, 'This is fine, this is cool. Let it go, let it ride, enjoy it.' It was fun."

On if he ever got emotional

"There were a lot of points there where I started getting emotional, you know. When we first ran out of the tunnel, I caught myself. I put on my jersey and I go, 'OK, this is the lat time I'm going to put on a jersey.' Then it's the last time I'll run out of the tunnel. Then when those moments happen, you catch yourself getting really emotional. Then you say, 'OK, you have to block that out because none of that makes a difference.' That's when you come out there and completely lay an egg, completely mess up the situation. So you have to concentrate and focus. Then you can be nostalgic all you want later tonight and tomorrow."

A couple of other things:

• The Jazz knew their season would be over before this game even started and that obviously played a factor in the final result. Forward Derrick Favors and guard Alec Burks were both held out of action and it sounds as though they would have been available if there were more at stake. "The last thing you want is heading into the offseason for any player to have something happen where they're injured … and you don't get an opportunity to get healthy because you're battling something else," Snyder said.
• Jazz guard Rodney Hood actually did injure his ankle in the first half and ended up being limited to just four minutes in the second half.
"I was just real tentative on it and it was just real sore," the guard said.
• Along those lines, it was somewhat surprising, even with the Jazz shorthanded, that Hayward played nearly 32 minutes. But the forward said he wasn't interested in sitting this one out.
"I wanted to play," he said. "I wanted to be a part of the night and go against [Bryant] one more time."

•The loss moved the Jazz to 12th in the pre-lottery rankings, where they have a .7 percent chance of landing the top overall pick.
• The Jazz will hold locker clean out and exit interviews tomorrow morning.

— Aaron Falk