Healed Finger = Kobe's Recent Scoring Spree?

Kobe Bryant's competitive drive has been a well documented aspect of his game.  In the league today, there is probably no other athlete that comes close in terms of his competitiveness, drive and will to win games.  He is up there with the likes of Michael Jordan in that category.

Bryant playing through the finger injury

Yet for all those attributes, Kobe can't seem to win against injuries.  He has missed a fair amount of games due to injuries he has suffered throughout his whole career.  Some of his injuries include:

• January 2004 - Sprained right shoulder (missed 6 games)
• January 2004 - Finger injury (missed 7 games)
• January 2005 - Sprained right ankle (missed 14 games)
• February 2010 - Sprained left ankle (missed 5 games)
• April 2010 - Knee injury (missed only 2 games but the knee is not healing)
• April 2010 - Finger injury (missed only 2 games but bothered him for the whole season)
• December 2012 - Wrist injury (no games missed but continues to get treatment)

Kobe's finger appears
to be healed

He was particularly bothered last season by the injury to his index finger (shooting hand) but he was able to play through the pain until the second round of the playoffs.  Because of the injury he had to adjust his shot to put less pressure on the finger.  If I were to decide, I would have sit him out until the finger would heal.

Recently I was able to see a picture of Kobe and noticed that he no longer has that bandage on his right index finger.  Is the finger already healing? Is it feeling better that it did a season ago?  Is it the reason that he has been scoring a lot this season?

I doubt that the finger is healed.  But I think the recent success he has had has nothing to do with the injuries, but more to do with time.  He knows that he only has a few years left in the league and he wants to get to the top once again.  The only way to be sure is to do it by yourself, or at least that is what he thinks.

Whether he will succeed, no one knows.  He'll only go as far as his body can take him.

Source: Yahoo, SB Nation